The Masked Ones
by Yajuu-Kikuishi
Summary: Something or someone has started a war against Soul Society for unknown reasons, this is the story of that war and what happens when people with powers Soul Society has never seen before show themselves.
1. Introduction

_A/N: Hey guys and gals and welcome to my brand new story based in the Bleach universe. First off there will be character deaths in this story so I'm sorry if your favourite character(s) dies but there's always a reason whatever it may be. Also, it's not based in the current bleach timeline, its sort of a made up one. Anywho enjoy reading the introduction. _

**Introduction**

The wind was blowing quite strongly in one of the most spiritually rich cities of Japan, and residents were being warned to stay inside from what seemed to be the beginning of one of the most powerful storms in a number of years. One man, however, was ignoring the warning and sitting on the roof of one of the taller buildings in the area. He had shoulder length silver hair, which was whipping around in the wind; he wore a white shirt and black tie, ironed black trousers and black combat boots on his feet. The way he sat caused the black overcoat he wore to splay out behind him and his stunning brown eyes looked across the city to the setting sun. Altogether he looked like a normal Japanese business man, except for the fact that he wore a katana on his right hip. It was a normal length katana with a red cord wrapped handle, and a guard that looked like a stubby lightning bolt.

The area around the man was practically silent, the only prominent sound was the whistling and gushing of the wind as it rushed past buildings and travelled down streets. The near silent surrounding was suddenly interrupted by a shrill beeping and the man jumped far enough that he as close to falling of the building. He placed his left hand on his heart as his right snaked into his pocket and withdrew a mobile phone. He looked at the little glowing screen and sighed, before flicking it open and raising it to his ear.

"Bloody hell woman, you know how to scare the crap outta me!" he said, pushing himself off the floor with his spare hand and standing up to his full height. "I'll be back soon, I've got some stuff to take care of here in the real world" he paused while the person on the other end of the phone started talking. "No, really, it won't take long" he interrupted, causing a barrage of swear words and insults to rage down the phone. He even resorted to pulling the phone away from his ear to wait it out. After a minute of two he brought the phone back to his ear. "You finished?" he asked, receiving a swear word as a result "I'll call you back when I'm done here." He flipped the phone shut and slipped it back into his pocket. It started ringing again but he ignored it as he looked down to the street below him.

Some of the cities' residents were braving the weather warning and moving about on the street. Most of them had their heads bent low and pushing forward with more of a power walk then a stroll. The clouds in the sky had begun to leak and the man looked up as the heavens opened with heavy rain. It crashed down and he was soaked in a matter of seconds. "Bloody weather is crazy nowadays!" he muttered as he jumped off the building. He dropped head first and fast enough that he was nearly at the floor in a couple of seconds. He flipped over and despite his speed landed gracefully on the concreted pavement. None of the few people that were out reacted, which wasn't strange, but they probably wouldn't have reacted even if they could see him. He walked up the street at a casual pace, his hair, tie and overcoat all flapping around in the wind. He turned a couple of random corners and eventually ended up in some sort of wide grassy area, with a small park in the middle. No-one was playing in this weather so the man was all by himself. He pushed the cuff of his coat and shirt back and looked at his watch.

"Right about…" he frowned and tapped the watch face "Now!" as he said it a huge pressure erupted in the area; strong enough that the wind could no longer move his hair or coat. The man simply looked up at the sky, just as a massive rip appeared in the air. A massive bone-like head emerged from the tear but it did not affect the man, in fact he looked ecstatic. "Oh goody!" he said and clapped his hands together "A big one!"

Soul Society's weather was a whole lot better then the real world at that time; it was sunny, had a blue sky and a few white clouds scattered about. Many of the lower ranking Shinigami were lounging about outside soaking up as much of the good weather as they could; not that Soul Society got bad weather, this was just better then normal. However a certain Vice-Captain was stuck in her office doing paperwork; her Captain was once again bedridden and she had happily picked up the work he still had left to do. She was beginning to regret her decision as she didn't realise how much paperwork Captains had actually had to do in the Gotei 13. She had now been staring at the same report on slacking members for the best part of and hour. She was relieved when she heard a knock on her door, and then embarrassed that she was relieved so was slightly red as a member of her division entered the room.

The Shinigami entered the room and bowed, before standing up straight again "Vice-Captain Kuchiki, Captain Kuchiki would like you to meet him at your family's Senkaimon." Rukia frowned slightly but nodded her head all the same; the Shinigami bowed again and exited the room. _What could my brother want with me? _She thought as she stood up and slipped her Zanpakuto into her belt. She wandered out of the room and through the building that was the offices of the 13th division of the Gotei 13. She got outside and looked up into the sunny sky. _What an unusually nice day it is. _She thought as she moved out of the courtyard and starting making her way towards the Kuchiki mansion. As she walked, she remembered how her brother had changed in recent years. She had found out that the reason she had never received a seated position was because he was making sure she didn't; a promise to her dead sister who was his wife before she died. However, for some reason he has yet to disclose to her, he had let her progress like a normal Shinigami and in no time at all she was a Vice-Captain.

While she had been thinking she arrived at the Kuchiki mansion sooner then she thought she would. As she approached the large gates that stopped commoners entering the household, the two guards came to attention and bowed before the gates swung open. Rukia raised her hand in response and entered the grounds. She turned right, and trekked around the edge of the building before she arrived at the garden that housed the Kuchiki family's personal Senkaimon. Byakuya Kuchiki stood before it, his Captain's Haori moving slightly in the breeze.

"Onee-san?" Rukia asks with a quizzical look on her face. Byakuya looks across at her with annoyance on his face.

"I have told you, have I not, that you are to refer to me as Captain Kuchiki, Vice-Captain Kuchiki." His voice still as cold as ice.

"I'm sorry Captain Kuchiki" Rukia said with a bow "What is it that you require of me."

"A hollow presence, too much for any normal Shinigami, has appeared at your old posting; Karakura town. A Vice-Captain was suggested to go, and your name came up because the main Senkaimon is faulty at the moment, and you are authorised to use this one." He said, still looking at her with his usual look. The Senkaimon behind him opened up as Rukia nodded.

"I will take care of it, Captain Kuchiki." Rukia said before bowing again and then heading into the white light, a hell butterfly at her shoulder, which would take her to Karakura town and an impending fight.

The hollow had fully emerged from the crack in the sky and the man was rubbing his hands together in anticipation of a fight. The hollow was huge, taller then all the buildings around it and as long as two trains, it only just fit into the grassy area. It had 12 short muscled legs and a long body to hold them, all along the length of the body there was 24 long necks with snake like heads on the end. They all looked the same except for the central one which had a hardened bone-like mask covering it. The man rolled his shoulders and cracked his fingers.

"Since I'm a nice guy, I'll introduce myself before tearing you to pieces." He shouted, trying to hear himself over the roaring of the massive hollow. "The names Masuki…" before he finished he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He glanced down and pulled the phone out, looking at the illuminated screen. It told him, the woman was trying to call him again.

As he focused on the phone, the hollow moved forward and lifted a massive leg, crashing it down on top of Masuki. It never reached the floor however, as Masuki had raised his left hand and stopped the attack dead. He slipped his phone into his pocket and looked up at the monsters foot; a large white circle. "Now, that wasn't very nice was it?" he said before gripping the foot and viciously twisting. His arm only turned about 120o but the force caused the hollows leg to twist 3 times completely around, before being torn off. The hollow screamed as his leg tore off and blood spurted from the wound like the rain that fell around it. Masuki used the severed limb to block the majority of the blood before throwing the useless thing away.

He then jumped away to avoid the continuing torrent of red, he jumped across and used the creatures other leg to propel himself into the air. As he reached, one of the heads, it roared and moved swiftly to swallow Masuki whole. Masuki simply smiled and swung his right fist forward, crashing his fist into the side of the large figure. It hardly moved, so Masuki moved forward and grabbed between the teeth of the top jaw and flipped over the top, dragging the head back. He put his feet on top of the head and pulled back, ripping the jaw off completely. He tossed the jaw aside and moved upwards to avoid the new spray of blood.

"Alrighty then, I think I've released enough reiatsu to finish this off." Masuki shot forward, weaving to avoid strikes from the other 22 generic heads and headed towards the masked one. As well as the mask, it was slightly bigger then the other heads and had large jagged teeth. It charged forward when it realised that Masuki was trying to do. Its mouth opened wide at Masuki went straight inside, the large mouth closing behind him and plunging him into total darkness.

As Masuki disappeared into the hollow, a classic Japanese paper door appeared in the sky directly above the hollow. The circular door opened and a black clad Shinigami stepped out into the air. Vice-Captain Kuchiki stepped out just to witness the massive hollow swallow someone whole. As she drew her Zanpakuto she noticed that the beast was already missing one head and a leg as well, she wondered if the Shinigami that was based here was better the Gotei 13 thought. She grabbed hold of her sword two handed and dropped down to the height of the central head, and shot forward. However, before she could strike the head off it exploded in a shower of bone and blood. Rukia recoiled away and used her arm to stop the stuff getting in her eyes. She looked, with surprise, at the man before him, just as he turned to face her.

"Well, well, well who do we have here?" Masuki said, crossing his arms and cocking his head to the side. "Judging by that black hakama you are wearing you must be one of the Shinigami, am I correct miss?"

Rukia was wary and still held her Zanpakuto at guard across her body. _Who is this guy, he's not in a hakama and he just tore a hollow of this size into pieces. He also has a sword on his belt, is it a Zanpakuto?_

"No reply, that's very rude of you." Masuki said, a small grin creeping onto his face. "Also, that armband…" ha pointed at the Vice-Captain's armband Rukia wore on her left arm "…means you're a Vice-Captain right? And the snowflake like symbol on your arm means you're a part of the 13th division? 3 out of 3 so far?"

"Yes…" Rukia replied apprehensively "Are you a Shinigami?" she asked, still on guard.

"Don't insult me." A sudden cold edge appeared in Masuki's voice "Anyway, enough questions!" he sped forward and, taking Rukia completely by surprise, rammed a fist into her stomach. Her eyes widened in surprise and her mouth opened, before she was thrown backwards by the force of blow. Masuki cracked his fingers again, and launched forward for another attack. Rukia managed to deflect the second blow with the side of her sword, but Masuki rotated and crashed his fist into the side of her head.

"C'mon Vice-Captain! You must be better then this." Masuki cried as he followed her flying through the air. Rukia turned in mid air and extended her left arm.

"Hado 31, Shakkaho*!" A ball of red energy appeared and fired off towards Masuki. Masuki grinned and batted the sphere away barehanded. When the smoke cleared, Rukia was stood in the air, her Zanpakuto raised with the point in the air. "Dance, Sode No Shirayuki" her Zanpakuto glowed a bright white and she rotated it 180o anti-clockwise. By the time it had fully rotated, the hilt had grown longer and a long ribbon was attached to it, the hand guard turned into a hollow snowflake like shape and the entire sword was a bright white.

"It really is a beautiful blade, Vice-Captain Rukia Kuchiki." Rukia's eyes widened in surprise.

"How do you know who I am?" she asked, her Shikai ready across her body.

"Whoops, looks like I let something slip." He disappeared and before Rukia could react he had a firm grip of the blade of her Zanpakuto. "Guess I'll have to finish this now then." He dropped his hand down and gripped her arm, lifting it up so that she was dangling from his grip. His right hand moved down and he placed it on the hilt of his own sword. "Goodbye, Vice-Captain of the 13th division." He flash of silver and a spurt of blood and Rukia's legs fell away from her, her Zanpakuto returned to its sealed state and the life drained from her eyes. Masuki let go and watched as the top half fell to the ground. He reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone, flicked it open and dialled a number. A woman picked up "Sorry, I might have gone slightly overboard."

_*Shot Of Red Fire_

_A/N: There we go then guys and gals, the introduction to my brand new bleach story that actually has a story!! Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, which was a lot!_ _Feel free to read & review._


	2. Chapter 1: It Begins

_A/N: Thanks for all the reviews so far and continue on reading for (hopefully) awesomeness!_

**Chapter 1 – It Begins**

Masuki stepped out of the doorway and paused to watch it shut behind him, making it seem like it had never been there. He looked across the sand covered world, picking out what looked like dead trees but were in fact made out of a type of crystal. He turned his head and found what he was looking for; a white stone-like doorway that led him to a downwards staircase. He stepped inside and walked down the stairs and as he arrived at the bottom a wall appeared to block access back up, spikes then appeared and the wall started moving forward. At first it was slow progress and Masuki could simply walk in front of it but then suddenly, about 10 seconds in, it drastically sped up and Masuki was forced to use shunpo to keep from dying. It lasted several minutes and then he arrived in a large hallway the door disappearing from behind him.

"I'll have to increase the speed of the wall, I only needed to go about 67% of my speed to evade it." He shrugged and moved on. The hallway was massive, easily towering about 50 feet above Masuki's head. It had pillars spanning the whole hallway that had flames at the top, about half way up in height. Masuki strode onwards, his boots silent on the stone beneath his feet. Because of the way that the room was built it seemed that Masuki was making no progress at all, however he was because minutes later he arrived at a massive door, not quite as tall as the room but close to it. He placed his hand on a circular pad that was in the centre and paused.

"Hado #1, Sho." A burst of energy left his hand and the door was forced open. As he did so the flames in the hallway died and Masuki was plunged into pitch black. It was impossible to see and there was no sound that reached his ears. He walked forward 4 paces and a bright light illuminated a perfectly circular table with 8 high back chairs surrounding it. Masuki glanced around and noticed that all the chairs had somebody stood behind them.

"Welcome to Las Noches, Masuki." One of them said a small laugh hidden behind it, the voice marking it out as a man and the shadows only allowed Masuki to see that he was an incredibly tall man.

"Las Noches? It hasn't been called that in a while." He said as he pulled his chair back and took a seat, the shadow covering his face and top half of his body. "Everyone, take a seat." His voice soft yet commanding. All of them obliged and pulled their seats back into the shadows before occupying it. You can tell, even by only seeing the bottom half of them, that this group was wide and varied. "Right then, I'll start." He reached into his overcoat and withdrew 12 cards, each the size of a standard playing card, and threw them on the table causing them to splay out and reveal all of them. They all had a picture of a Shinigami on and below the picture varying information. "There we have it, the 12 Vice-Captains of the Gotei 13. Information on strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes and most importantly Zanpakuto abilities."

One of the shadows, the light revealing that they wore white shoes and blue jeans, coughed loudly to gain Masuki's attention. "Not that I'm questioning your abilities, I'm just curious is all, is there not 13 Vice-Captains?" he asked.

Masuki nodded to this "Usually so, but not for the moment. I contributed to this."

"You killed one of the Vice-Captains, I was under the impression that we were not to directly interfere with the Shinigami. In fact this was an explicit order from yourself."

"She fell beneath the parameters of my expectations. There is not a problem however, this should actually make things easier later." Masuki then raised a hand to indicate that the matter was resolved. "So then, your reports?" he looked to the person on his left who's lower half revealed that they were wearing black leather shoes and long socks.

"I have investigated the required Captains and have found all the information required on Yamamoto Genryuusai-Shigekuni apart from the abilities of his Bankai; it seems that there are only 3 people old enough to have seen it and apparently they've never have. As for the 2nd division Captain, Shihion Yourichi, the ability of her Zanpakuto is a complete mystery and she only rarely carries it around with her."

"I can understand the failure to find the Bankai of the Captain-Commander but you failed to get _any _information on Shihion Yourichi's Zanpakuto." Masuki said, slight annoyance in his voice.

"I don't think it will be a problem, she does not seem to ever use it."

"Still, if she decides to use it then we could be in trouble." He turned his head to the next person as two more cards appeared on the table. "I hope you have had better luck."

"Indeed I have." The light showing that this guy had extremely long legs, and he had them on the chair so his knees were close to his ears, and that he had blue trainers and black trousers on. "I have gathered all information on Captain Otoribashi and have only failed to gain information on Captain Unohana's Bankai." He said, throwing two cards onto the table.

"Understandable and good enough, next."

The next person was clearly a woman as the light showed slender legs with sandals on feet with painted nails. "I have managed to perfectly gather all information on the Captains of the 5th and 6th divisions." Was all she said before placing two more cards on the table.

"Good, next."

The next person had pale skin and wore a pair of brown sandals on her feet, her voice confirmed she was a girl. "I have managed to gather all information on the 7th division Captain, Aikawa Love but there does not seem to be anyone who knows what Kyouraku Shunsui's Bankai is; it is a complete mystery."

"Again that is to be expected with someone like him, moving on." Masuki said as another two joined the cards already on the table.

"Mine was probably the easiest of the lot, I managed to gather all information on the Captains of the 9th and 10th division completely." The next one said, another one with blue jeans but with black trainers said as he threw two more cards on the table making the total 23 cards on the table.

"ENOUGH!!!" The massive roar erupted from an equally massive man who looked like a living oak tree in the shadows, he slammed his dustbin like hand onto the table and to the others it felt like the entire room shifted; which, to be fair, it probably did. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF BLOODY INFORMATION GATHERING, LET'S JUST KILL THE WHOLE LOT OF THEM NOW!!"

"Settle down, Taiki, or you'll have to lose another finger." Although you could hear playfulness it was clearly absolutely serious. On closer inspection Taiki's right hand was missing half of its middle finger.

"That was a lucky shot Masuki and you know it!" his voice had lowered in volume but only fractionally.

"Would you like to test that theory of yours." Masuki's voice became suddenly cold and a flare or his reiatsu physically pushed Taiki back into his seat with a crash as his heavy weight slammed into the stone chair and it nearly fell over. "Now that your comfy, you can give your report." He said, his voice returned to its calm and happy sounding self.

"Ok then, I've got all the information that I need on the 11th division Captain, Kenpachi Zaraki, he's just the sort of person I can sink my teeth into." And he threw a card onto the table

"Good, now finally, the last report." Masuki said, his voice and behaviour as if nothing had happened with Taiki a minute ago.

The final person was the person who had talked first about Masuki's decision to kill a Vice-Captain. "I have investigated both the 12th division and the 13th division and have discovered everything about them, even the fact that the 13th division Captain is suffering from an illness that exacerbates when he overexerts himself of if great pain is inflicted towards him. It is quite interesting and drastically lowers his combat potential but not enough that we should underestimate him."

"Good, it seems that we have almost all the information that we need to start." Masuki said and stood up turning to leave.

"Not yet Masuki, there is something I am curious about." Masuki turned around to face, yet again, the boy with blue jeans and white shoes. "Where oh where is our dear leader. We haven't seen her in a while now."

"I have been in contact with her and you know the rules, that's why there is only 8 chairs in here."

"Are you sure there is nothing you can say?"

"Absolutely." With that he moved away and the room once again fell into darkness and all that could be heard was the scraping of stone on stone as the rest of the group made their exits.

x+x+x+x+x

The Captain-Commander of the military forces of Soul Society, the Gotei 13, Captain Yamamoto, was sitting at his desk in the 1st division barracks. He had a large piece of paper in front of him and had only filled up about half of it in the last 3 hours of work. He was about to start up again after a shot break when his Vice-Captain, Chojiro Sasakibe, appeared behind his him with shunpo. He was on one knee and had his head bent low in respect to Captain Yamamoto.

"What is it, Chojiro?" he asked, his voice younger than his looks.

"I'm afraid I have received some rather disturbing news from the real world, Captain." Was the reply "It involves Vice-Captain Kuchiki who was sent to the real world to deal with a hollow."

"I am aware what happens within my organisation, Chojiro. Carry on with the report."

"A call came in from the Shinigami that is normally based in Karakura Town and he has reported that Vice-Captain Rukia Kuchiki of the 13th division has been killed." Captain Yamamoto looked up and laid his pen on his desk. "And it was not the hollow that killer her, it was a Zanpakuto." With this statement a mild look of surprise appeared on the battle worn face of Yamamoto.

"A Zanpakuto? How was she able to be found, her body should have dissipated by now." He asked

"There is no clue as to why."

Yamamoto stood up and swept towards the large door that served as the entrance to his office. He stopped and turned to face Chojiro as the doors swung open. "Send members of the Onmitsukido to Captains Urahara, Hirako and Kenpachi and have them immediately go to the meeting room. Send hell butterflies to the rest of the captains for a Captains meeting immediately after I have finished with the others." He then swept through the door as Vice-Captain Sasakibe bowed and then disappeared with shunpo.

x+x+x+x+x

Shihion Yourichi, Captain of the 2nd division and Commander-in-chief of the Onmitsukido, was stood in her room staring into the mirror that was on her wall. She ran he hand through her pony-tailed purple hair and then picked up her Zanpakuto from a stand on her wall. She slipped it into position on the back of her belt; horizontally across, the handle on the right hand side. She moved towards her door and picked up her Haori as she did so, slipping it on. She exited her door and as she did so, waved to the black clad girl to her right. "Come on Soi Fon; let's go get the day started."

"O…0f course Yourichi-sama!" the small black haired girl moved forward, nearly stumbling on her own feet.

"You've been my personal bodyguard for a while now; surely you're not still nervous?" a playful grin on her lips. However, before Soi Fon could reply a small pitch black butterfly appeared around the corner. Yourichi turned to face it and held out a finger allowing it to land there.

"Captains of divisions; 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 13 are required to immediately assemble at the meeting room." The butterfly then took off and disappeared into the sky as Yourichi sighed heavily.

"Meet me at my office, Soi Fon. This sounds serious." Yourichi said before disappearing with the use of shunpo.

x+x+x+x+x

Rose Otoribashi, Captain of the 3rd division, was barely out of bed by the time the knocking came on his door. He grunted loudly and got out of bed, stretching out the cramps he usually got because of the way he slept. "One minute!" he called, making sure his Vice-Captain didn't come barging in while he was still undressed, not that his Vice-Captain was that kind of person. He quickly opened up his dresser and got his hakama out, his usual frilly shirt underneath. In no time at all he had dressed and was slipping on his sleeveless Haori when he opened the door to his Vice-Captain. The silver hair child, stood at the door with his usual grin upon his face and Rose made a face. "Not only are you some sort of genius Shinigami but you always have that creepy look on your face Gin, can you even change your facial expression?" he asked.

He received only a slightly smaller grin as Vice-Captain of the 13th division Gin Ichimaru greeted his captain. "Mornin' Captain, I hope you slept well." Rose simply rose an eyebrow at what he thought was one of the strangest Shinigami in the Gotei 13 to date. Rose then reached to his right and picked up his Zanpakuto, slipping it into his belt. "So then Gin, what work do I have to do today."

"Jus' some paper work on your desk Cap'n, our third seat is pretty good at paperwork."

"How mean of you Gin, getting a third seat to do my paper work" he said a sort of mocking in his voice, he then bent over to Gin's ear "How much has he done?" before Gin could reply a pitch black butterfly appeared from around the corner. "A hell butterfly? What's up now I wonder?" Rose said to himself as the butterfly settled on his shoulder.

""Captains of divisions; 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 13 are required to immediately assemble at the meeting room."

"How very troublesome." Rose said as he turned back to Gin "Gin I'll leave you to finish of the paperwork, but no doubt there will be more when I get back." He said with a sigh and then moved off in the direction of the 1st division barracks and the meeting room.

x+x+x+x+x

The captain of the medical section of the Gotei 13, the 4th division Captain Unohana Retsu, had gotten up early today. She had a couple of injured 11th division members that, although no seriously injured enough to merit her aid, were likely to cause problems with the rest of her division should she not be there to tell them to stay still. As expected, the ward that the 11th division members were in was in a ruckus for such an early time in the morning. Captain Unohana entered the room to find two 11th division members trying to force their way out of the ward without the permission of the attending doctors.

"We're fine, let us out of here already!" a red headed one shouted as the nurse pushed back.

"No, really. I must insist that you remain in your beds as you recover." The nurse said over the shouting.

"Like hell! We of the 11th division are not so injured we can't move!"

Captain Unohana walked into the room silently and did not say anything until she was directly behind the two injured people. "Now, now, it is early in the morning and my patients need to rest. That includes you." The last three words were said with enough force that, although she made a calm face, it made the members calm down and get back into their beds.

As she turned to exit the ward she met with the 4th divisions Vice-Captain, Isane Kotetsu, who did a slight bow before addressing her Captain. "Captain Unohana, I'm happy to report that all patients under our care are progressing nicely."

Captain Unohana nodded with a kindly smile and then turned her head as a hell butterfly appeared in the window of the ward. It flew forward and hovered in front of the Captain before a voice came from it.

x+x+x+x+x

It was early in the morning when there was a knock at the Captain of the 5th division's bedroom door. He was splayed across his bed, his duvet half off him and his arm under his pillow. He grunted in a response but didn't move until the knocking became more persistent. He pulled himself out of bed and slipped on a floral patterned kimono before opening the door to reveal a member of the Onmitsukido knelt at his door, the wooden hat covering his eyes.

"Hirako Shinji, Captain of the 5th division, Captain-Commander Yamamoto has requested your immediate presence at the 1st division barracks." Shinji nodded lazily and closed to door.

"What does the old man want at this time in the morning." He muttered as he moved towards his cupboard and dropped the kimono to the floor before slowly dressing in his black hakama that all Shinigami wore. He reached for his white long sleeved white Haori and slipped it over his uniform before picking up his Zanpakuto and putting it into his belt. He walked out of his room and trekked through the halls before getting outside. He bumped into a night guard of his division, who bowed. "I keep telling you guys not to be so formal, oh well, can you inform Sousuke to keep things in check while I'm out."

"Of course Captain." The guard said with another bow. Shinji shook his head and then trudged on, making his way to Captain-Commander Yamamoto.

A short while later he arrived, the doors were already open and Vice-Captain Sasakibe was waiting for him. The Vice-Captain bowed and gestured towards a door to his left, which Shinji took and entered into the room. Captain-Commander Yamamoto was sitting in a large chair, his cane balanced in his right hand and Captain Urahara had beaten him there. The two captains nodded at each other and Shinji got the vibe that something serious was about to go down.

x+x+x+x+x

Kuchiki Byakuya, Captain of the 6th division, had woken up at the usual time and was making his way towards the shrine of his dead wife. He was already fully dressed in his hakama and Haori and his Zanpakuto, Senbonsakura, was neatly at his side. He slid the paper door open that allowed him entry to the room and walked inside; silently closing the door beside him. He walked forwards several steps and removed his sword from his belt, placing it on a stand to the right of the room, before moving back to the front of a pair of wooden doors. He lowered himself to his knees, his feet tucked under his legs and his Haori splayed out behind him, before pressing his hands together. He reached slowly forward and pulled the doors open, revealing a picture of a raven haired girl, a clump of hair dangling between her grey coloured eyes. "Hisana…" he whispered before falling silent and closing his eyes.

Some time later, he exited the room and made his way to the 6th division barracks but before he reached it he was interrupted by a hell butterfly. It hovered in front of him before reciting the summons for a Captain's meeting with Captain-Commander Yamamoto.

x+x+x+x+x

His normal afro was out of shape as he got out of bed and stretched out his arms with half a yawn escaping from his lips. Aikawa Love, Captain of the 7th division, moved slowly towards his dresser where he removed his hakama and slowly started dressing. Finally he put on his sleeveless Haori and slipped his Zanpakuto into his belt before making his way out. He exited his room based in the 7th division barracks and made his way through the corridors before coming to his Vice-Captains room. He knocked once sharply and then opened the door without waiting for a response. Like every other time Komamura Sajin was all ready to go and just picking up his Zanpakuto as he made his way to the door. Love was tall but he looked small when he stood next to his Vice-Captain; the top of his afro only just brushing Sajin's chin.

"Ready as always I see Sajin." Love said

"As always Captain, I am always ready." The massive wolf man said in reply.

"Come on then, Sajin, let's go to the office." Love turned around and moved down the hall, the audible stomps of his Vice-Captain following suite. The two of them arrived at the divisions main office to find a black butterfly floating by love's desk.

"Oh, a hell butterfly." Love said with surprise "What are you doing here little fellow." And listened as it recited its message. "Ok then, Sajin, hold the fort while I'm away. This sounds serious."

"Of course, Captain." Sajin said as Love manoeuvred around him and exited the office, making his way to Captain-Commander Yamamoto.

x+x+x+x+x

Kyouraku Shunsui had not been able to get to sleep the night before and was wandering through the streets of Sereitei. The Captain of the 8th division wasn't walking fast and was simply trundling along. Some of the guards he passed bowed in respect while others simply acknowledged him with his name and rank. He meandered through the streets and eventually he was alone by a large willow-like tree.

"You can come on out now, Lisa-Chan." He said softly, and his Vice-Captain, Yadomaru Lisa, jumped out from behind the wall she had been hiding from. "are you trying to get me all alone Lisa-Chan?" he asked, a playful grin on his face.

"I was just wondering where you were off to, and what you're thinking about." she replied moving to lean against the wall as Shunsui leant against the tree.

"What makes you wonder that I'm thinking about anything at all?" he said, pushing his straw hat up so that it wasn't covering his eyes.

"You always go out walking when you are thinking about something or uneasy." Lisa replied matter-of-factly.

"You know me too well, Lisa-Chan." He said, pulling his hat back down over his eyes as he slid down to a sitting position. "I've had an uneasy feeling ever since Rukia-Chan was sent to the real world. Something bad is about to fall upon us." Before Lisa could reply however a small black butterfly appeared over the wall Lisa had been hiding behind. It floated down to Shunsui's level and recited its message to him. He pulled himself up again and turned away. He looked back at Lisa before leaving using shunpo.

"Your feelings are too accurate Shunsui." She said before she also disappeared with the use of Shunpo.

x+x+x+x+x

Muguruma Kensei, Captain of the 9th division, had already started his morning training. He was dressed in dark blue trousers, no sandals and a bare chest. He was sparring with the 5th seat of his division, both were using wooden swords and both were going at it enough to cause a sweat. It was a well disciplined practice and there was no wild swings of unorthodox moves. It lasted for about 10 minutes before the 5th seat held up his hand.

"Captain, you are to strong for me. I will have to give up here I think." He was out f breath and sweat was pouring down at him.

"You did well, next time I expect you to last longer though." Kensei replied, not out of breath and a slight sheen of sweat covering his skin.

"Of course Captain, I will continue to train myself." The 5th seat said before bowing and exiting the room.

Kensei wiped his brow and placed the wooden sword down on the side and then followed his opponent out of the room but taking a different route and getting back to his room to wash. As he left the bathroom he walked into a hell butterfly waiting for him. It recited its message and Kensei quickly dressed and left for the meeting.

x+x+x+x+x

Hitsugaya Toshirou, the captain of the 10th division, was in his office filling out paperwork. He had a large backup of paperwork thanks to a month long incursion into the human world a few months back. Now he was back he was trying to get as much paperwork done in as little time as he could.

"All thanks to my useless Vice-Captain." He muttered to himself just as Matsumoto Rangiku entered the room.

"Hi Captain, did you get any sleep at all last night? You look terrible!" her voice as flamboyant as always.

"Keep your voice down Matsumoto, you're so loud in the morning." He said while raising his hand to his forehead to massage it.

"Were you drinking last night!..." and before Toshirou could reply she carried on "…and you didn't invite me! How mean of you Captain."

"I was not drinking, Matsumoto. I was simply working, since you failed to do a single sheet of paperwork while I was away."

"Not true Captain, I did…" she paused and raised a finger to her chin in a thinking pose "I might have…" she paused again trying to think of something she actually did. "Alright fine, I didn't get much paperwork done while you were away."

"Much!" a vein started to throb on his forehead "You didn't get any done! At all! I was away for a month and I come back to find a months worth of paperwork waiting for me!"

"Come on Captain, I'm terrible at paperwork and you know it."

"Matsumoto…" before he could finish a hell butterfly flew in through the open window and landed on Toshirou's desk before reciting its message. He stood up and moved to the doorway "This time actually do some paperwork before I get back." And then he disappeared.

"Always so grumpy." Rangiku said before sitting down at his desk.

x+x+x+x+x

Kenpachi Zaraki, Captain of the 11th division, hadn't slept a wink that night. He had caught a whiff of strong reiatsu on a passing Shinigami and was currently following him through the streets of Sereitei. Zaraki thought he looked weird but wasn't to concerned about what he looked like; that didn't affect his reiatsu levels. The Shinigami had a multitude of colour in his hair and two full size katana on his left hip. Zaraki was following him because he was testing to see if the Shinigami noticed his presence or his own reiatsu fluctuated. The Shinigami paused and looked over his shoulder, directly at Zaraki who was hidden in the shadows.

"Yay! He saw you, Kenny." The pink haired Vice-Captain, Kusajishi Yachiru, popped her head up from behind Zaraki's shoulder and jumped into the air. "That mean Kenny's going to have some fun?"

"Yeah." He growled and moved out of the shadows and into the dim light of the morning and stood in front of the Shinigami, now that he was close enough he could see that the hair was actually blonde beneath the colour. "You, Shinigami, I want to fight you!"

The Shinigami just stood there and crossed his arms before speaking. "As much as I would love to fight someone as strong as yourself Captain Kenpachi, it seems that someone else wants your attention." He nodded in a direction behind Zaraki.

"I know, but I have interest in sneaky little Shinigami, crawling around. I want to fight you."

"It does look like the fellow has some sort of urgency though. How about you listen to him and then fight me, that way you won't be distracted by his presence."

Zaraki frowned and then turned to face the Onmitsukido member that was behind him. "I'm glad I managed to find you, your presence is requested immediately at the 1st division meeting room under the direct order of Captain-Commander Yamamoto."

Zaraki let out a small growl and turned to face the previous Shinigami again. "Unfortunately I can't ignore an order from the old geezer so you stay here, I'll be back to fight you once I'm finished." He then looked up to Yachiru who was stood on his shoulder. "Which way then Yachiru?"

Yachiru looked around wildly and then pointed back the way they had come from. Zaraki started to move but stopped as the Shinigami he had been talking to coughed.

"Actually, Captain, it's that way." And he pointed in the opposite direction that Yachiru had. Zaraki looked up at Yachiru and then ran back in the direction the Shinigami had pointed out.

x+x+x+x+x

Urahara Kisuke, Captain of the 12th division, was working on some new equipment in his workstation in the 12th division barracks. He had gotten the idea a couple days ago for what he was working on and he had been dying to start work on it and he had finally got enough time to do it now. His usually untidy blonde hair was even more untidy and his green and white hat sat on the side next to a new type of Gigai he was also working on. If anyone else entered the room they would not be able to see what he was working on because he was working on it while it was hidden under a white sheet. A knocking came at his door and Kisuke had to leave his work to slide open the door revealing a member of the Onmitsukido.

"Yes."

"Captain, your presence is immediately required at the 1st division barracks under the authority of Captain-Commander Yamamoto."

"Of course, I'll be there immediately." He picked up his Zanpakuto and slipped it into his belt before exiting the room and heading towards the Captain Commander.

x+x+x+x+x

_A/N: There we go, the first chapter to what I hope will be an uber story all my readers will enjoy! Feel free to read & review, preferably both._

_On a side note, OC's will be credited when they are formally and properly introduced. Ta for all the submissions by the way!_


	3. Chapter 2: Bad News

_A/N: Sorry for the late post, I had to rewrite some of it. Anyways, read on!_

**Chapter 2 – Bad News**

Once again Kyouraku Shunsui was the last to arrive to a captain's meeting, he walked in with his pink Haori flowing and took up his position on the left by Kuchiki Byakuya. He lifted his straw hat to reveal his eyes and nodded a greeting to Captain Yamamoto before dropping it and crossing his arms in front of him. All the captains and now arrived and were standing where they should be, leaving gaps for the 4 absent Captains. Yamamoto was sat in his high backed chair at the back of the room; on his left were Captains Otoribashi, Aikawa and Muguruma. On Yamamoto's right were Captains Shihion, Unohana, Kuchiki, Kyouraku and Hitsugaya.

There was no conversation to interrupt but Yamamoto nonetheless cleared his throat and tapped his cane on the floor. "Let the Captains meeting begin!"

"Um, Captain Yamamoto…" Hitsugaya said, gaining the attention of all the people in the room. "Are we not missing some of the Captains?"

"Captains Hirako, Urahara and Kenpachi have been sent to the real world while Captain Ukitake is once again indisposed." Yamamoto said, with a somewhat annoyed look on his face. "As most of you are now aware, yesterday the Vice-Captain of the 13th division, Kuchiki Rukia, was sent to the real world to deal with a rather strong hollow. Due to faults with the general Senkaimon, she used the Kuchiki family Senkaimon in order for her to travel there; which is one of the reasons she was the Vice-Captain chosen to deal with it."

"In the night report of the Shinigami posted into Karakura Town, some rather disturbing news came in; the news that the 13th division Vice-Captain was dead!" The reaction was expected as the gathered Captains all looked surprised except Byakuya who seemed to have no reaction at all until he cleared his throat.

"You are saying that a member of the Kuchiki family and a Vice-Captain of the Gotei 13 was killed by a hollow?" he said, his usual voice only quivering minutely and was only noticed by the much older Captains.

"No, she was not killed by the hollow she was facing." Yamamoto replied to more surprised faces and even Byakuya had a look of surprise on his face. "She was killed by a Zanpakuto."

Byakuya barely contained himself when he spoke next "A Shinigami killed her?"

"No, although a Zanpakuto was used to kill her, the initial reports from Captain Urahara have stated that the reiatsu of the sword is of no Shinigami or soul within Soul Society."

"A person with a Zanpakuto that doesn't reside within Soul Society!" Hitsugaya said "How is that even possible?"

"Captain Urahara should be contacting us soon with more data and a recap for the Captains." Just as Yamamoto spoke, a large screen lowered from the ceiling with a beeping sound. The screen looked like a normal television screen but around the edge was flesh-like purple stuff. "This was installed by Urahara a couple of years ago; it allows higher ranked members of the Gotei 13 to directly contact me from the real world if necessary."

With a flash, Captain Urahara's face appeared on the screen; his green and white bucket hat casting shadows around his eyes. "Captain Yamamoto." He said with a nod, the serious look on his face attested to the seriousness of the situation; he was usually a fun looking guy. "I can now defiantly say that Vice-Captain Kuchiki was killed by someone whose reiatsu has never been recorded within Soul Society. In fact, what the killer has seemed to do is leave their reiatsu around the wound and yet not directly affect it; which is why the body did not disappear when she was killed. It was if a normal blade was the cause of her death. This suggests that the killer intentionally left his reiatsu there for us to find."

"That is disturbing." Rose said, his glasses hiding the look in his eyes.

"Yes." Yamamoto said. "What else have you discovered?"

"Well, I need a little more time to confirm it, but I think that the killer used a Garganta to leave the area."

"A Garganta? I thought only hollows could use them." Yourichi butted in.

"I know which is why I need time to confirm it. This would suggest that maybe a hollow has gained the powers of a Zanpakuto or something else has gained the ability of creating a Garganta or maybe it is someone who is allied with the Hollows in some way. There are too many explanations for me at the moment." Urahara said. "Also, I think whoever it was will be coming back soon."

"What makes you think that?" Kensei asked

"Just a feeling and maybe an experiment will help me."

"Captain Urahara, what are the other two Captains doing at the moment." Yamamoto interrupted.

"They are scouting around the area, paying close attention to places I have pointed out as possible re-entry points. They have both sampled the reiatsu of the killer so if they reappear they'll recognise it."

"I will be sending some reinforcements that will be able to support you while you are researching." Yamamoto said, and then the screen went blank and disappeared back into the ceiling. "As you have heard, this might become a bigger problem. Since the assailant managed to kill a Vice-Captain with apparent ease, I forbid anyone but Captains to engage them. However, I require 4 3rd seats to be sent to the real world to support Captain Urahara. I will order Madarame Ikkaku from the 11th division, I need three more."

Kensei nodded his head. "I'll have my 3rd seat, Hisagi Shuhei, down as well. Maybe an encounter with a strong enemy will get him to man up more."

Rose also nodded. "I will send my 3rd seat, Izuru Kira, to support as well."

"I'll send Kikuishi Yajuu, if that is alright with you Yama-jii." Kyouraku said from beneath his hat.

"That is fine Shunsui. Send them immediately to the Senkaimon to report down to earth. Once this initial phase is over, a full military funeral will be held for Vice-Captain Kuchiki. Unless you would like a more private ceremony, Captain Kuchiki."

Byakuya had been distant throughout the briefing and was only brought back by the sound of Yamamoto's voice. "No, it is alright Captain Yamamoto. She would have wanted a public ceremony." He managed before sweeping from the room and disappearing with Shunpo. The other Captains looked at where he had been with sadness in their eyes.

"Then the Captains meeting is adjourned. Return to your respective positions and have the 3rd seats report immediately, dismissed!" he banged his cane on the floor and the remaining Captains left the room, some discussing the situation with each other and others keeping to themselves.

x+x+x+x+x

Kikuishi Yajuu, member of the 8th division, was sat on the floor with his back against a tree and the sun casting the shadows of leaves across his face. His Zanpakuto pair was perched across his knees and he had his eyes closed as if he were asleep. An apple suddenly dropped from above his head and an inch before it hit, his hand shot upwards and caught it skilfully. Yajuu then lowered the apple and took a large bite out of it without opening his eyes.

"I knew you were awake Yajuu." A female voice said from above him and a Shinigami appeared upside down from the tree, here legs holding her up.

"Can't leave me a moments peace can you Kuri?" Yajuu replied, placing the apple to his side and returning to his original position.

Kuri ignored him and dropped one of her hands to his hair, idly fiddling with one of the beaded strings that Yajuu had filling his hair. "I love this hair of yours, how do you make it so pretty?"

"A long and arduous task that would make me grateful for you to not mess it up." Jokingly imitating annoyance with his voice. He reached up and grabbed Kuri's arm, pulling her from the tree so that she landed next to him with a thud.

"Ow, what ya do that for?" she said, standing up and rubbing her behind with a cringe. Yajuu didn't reply however, but stood up suddenly and placed his Zanpakuto into his belt. "Captain Kyouraku!"

The aloof Captain had appeared suddenly and waved his hand at Yajuu and Kuri, who had both bowed to him. "Not so formal, Kikuishi-Kun." He said as he moved forward. "Hello there Kuri-Chan." He added as he noticed Kuri standing next to Yajuu. "Kikuishi-kun there is a mission going to the real world and I'd like you to go. You will be accompanying 3 3rd seats and will be supporting Kisuke."

"Captain Urahara? I'm honoured you'd send me along with 3rd seats Captain, myself not having a seated position." Yajuu replied

"We both know you are more then qualified don't we?" a sly smile on Kyouraku's lips.

"Qualified for a seated position, Yajuu?" Kuri said with her hand covering her mouth and trying to contain a fit of laughter, which she failed to do as she burst out laughing.

"I take it she does not know then." Kyouraku said and Yajuu shook his head with a small smile. "Well then if you could go to the Senkaimon and meet the others this needs to start immediately." He said before disappearing using Shunpo.

Yajuu looked at Kuri and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention; she quietened down to a mere chuckle to listen. "I'll be back soon, try to contain yourself until then." And then he too disappeared with Shunpo, leaving Kuri to fall to the floor and burst out laughing again.

Yajuu appeared just around the corner to the Senkaimon and casually walked out to meet the 3rd seats that were going to the real world with him. His eyes widened in amazement when he saw who it was. "Oh my god, it's you guys!" he said as he approached the three men. "I would have got here a lot quicker if I had known it would be you three 3rd seats!" he rushed forward and grasped the hand of the one closest to him, Madarame Ikkaku. "Madarame-san, 3rd seat of the 11th division but easily on the level of most of the Vice-Captains, man if you're being sent down there then things must be totally serious!" Ikkaku looked bewildered at this man shaking his hand, they were about the same height but the major difference being the amount of hair they had. Ikkaku was completely bald whereas Yajuu had thick shoulder length dirty blonde hair and was filled with masses of coloured beads and strings.

Ikkaku smiled and released the grip on his hand to swing his hand around Yajuu's shoulders. "This one knows how to treat his superiors! Eh, Kira?" Yajuu then moved forward and also grabbed Kira's hand.

"Izuru Kira, 3rd seat of the 3rd division but still awesomely powerful, can't believe you are here!" Yajuu was a couple of inches taller then Kira and the latter looked slightly intimidated by Yajuu's enthusiasm. Yajuu then turned and faced the final person. "And the genius of the 9th division, Hisagi Shuhei!" he grabbed his hand and shook it vigorously. "I am so glad Captain Kyouraku decided to send me on this mission with you guys! It is going to rock, even if nothing happens!" as he said this, a hell butterfly appeared at each of the men, meaning that it was time to go; which was confirmed by the large gates that made up the Senkaimon opened to reveal the white light that would take them to the real world.

x+x+x+x+x

The sun was setting and Masuki was leaning against a lamppost back in Karakura Town; he could feel the reiatsu of the three Captains and was making sure that none of his own leaked out for them to sense. Two of the Captains were roving and had come close to his position twice without noticing him. He pulled his cuff back and looked at his watch, clicking his tongue in impatience as he did so. "That bloody Taiki, can't keep time at all." As he said this a ripping sound filled the air and a large black doorway appeared, big enough to let the monster of a man step through quite easily.

Taiki stepped out into the real world and looked around. He was a giant of a man, more then a foot taller then the already tall Masuki, and was nearly the same width. His arms looked like they had basketballs shoved down his top and his hands were as big as a dustbin lid. He was wearing a white t-shirt that looked about 3 sizes too small, a black leather jacket over the top of it, black leather trousers and large black leather workman boots with steel toecaps. His pitch black hair was shaggy and stopped just above his hazel coloured eyes and he had the stubble of an unkempt beard on his chin. He had a number of old scars that could be seen wear his skin showed, with the most notable being the missing bit of his left ear and half of his right middle finger was gone. On either side of his belt, by his hips, was a Tanto with black wrapped handles and black circular hand guards that had 12 red dots circling the blade.

As he stepped out of the perfectly formed Garganta his immense spiritual pressure came with him and Masuki swore under his breath as he increased his own spiritual pressure to cover Taiki's and then hid it completely taking Taiki's reiatsu with it. He grabbed Taiki by the belt and pulled him into an alleyway and shadow just as two Shinigami with white Haori's appeared where they had been standing a second ago. Taiki's eyes widened and he moved to step out and speak but Masuki glared at him with enough killing intent that he backed down. Masuki's face then relaxed and he switched his gaze back to the two Captains.

"Where did those bastards go!" The taller of the two said, his large spiked hair moving as his head looked around. "They finally reveal themselves and then scurry away like rats, pathetic!" Zaraki sneered and released his grip he had on his Zanpakuto.

The second Captain was move cautious and kept his hand on the hilt of his sword as he looked around. "Don't worry Zaraki, you'll get your fun, they'll be back soon." Shinji said as he also looked around.

Masuki and Taiki stayed within the darkness and watched the two captains as they looked around. Eventually they both left and Masuki turned to Taiki. "Have I not told you before to keep your reiatsu in check? Otherwise every spiritually aware person will come stomping around." He said his voice still deceptively light and friendly. Taiki simply grunted and faced Masuki, trying to use his height to intimidate his ally at least a little bit, but it wasn't working.

"So what the hell are we doing here if we are just going to hide!" Taiki hissed. "You could've scouted these guys without me." He stepped back so he was leaning against the wall and slid down until he was resting on his haunches.

"This is not a scouting mission, you'll be able to do what you love best, and we just have to wait for a bit." Masuki said calmly.

"So what kind of mission is it then?" A grin had started to form on Taiki's face at the prospect of running rampant.

"It is merely a distraction and experimentation mission. As soon as they arrive, I'll let you off your leash and you can have as much fun as you want without killing any of them." Taiki started to protest but Masuki raised his hand "I know how you are about killing but this is the order that you will follow." Although his voice was still friendly, it still had an undertone of absolute command that Taiki would follow; whether he liked it or not.

"So who are we waiting to arrive?" Taiki asked quietly.

"It don't matter who you're waiting for, I'll kill you both off now!" the voice came from above them and the two spirits looked up to see Zaraki leering above them on a rooftop. He had his Zanpakuto drawn and it was resting on his shoulder.

"What now Masuki, surely I can beat him down before whoever arrives." Taiki said as he mirrored the manic grin that was upon Zaraki's face.

Masuki sighed "I suppose you can, but as I said don't kill him." As Taiki reached down and placed his hands on his weapons Masuki spoke again "and no weapons at the moment."

"Hmph, whatever, I don't need my weapons for someone like him anyway." Then he crouched low and pushed off the ground, shooting towards Zaraki like a missile.

Masuki didn't have time to watch his friend however, as he sensed a blade coming his way which he ducked to avoid and then stepped away while spinning to see his assailant. Shinji had his blade drawn and it was now held across his body with one hand. "Did you think I wouldn't notice you hiding in here? You got me with hiding all that reiatsu but I have eyes as well you know." He said, his eyes not leaving Masuki who had now slipped his hands into pockets.

"Whatever, you just started the party a little earlier then was planned is all." He looked around like he wasn't paying attention to his opponent. "If you're going to fight me, I'll tell you now that that isn't a good idea at all. There is probably only one Captain within the Gotei 13 that can stand up to me and you're not him."

"You dodged my attack though, that means you must see me as at least a little bit of a threat."

"Oh yeah, I didn't say you weren't a threat; a Captain's blade can still cut me and if they can't then I don't see why they're a captain at all."

"Who are you and why are you here? Are you the one who killed Kuchiki?" Shinji asked, still wary as to what Masuki might try.

"Questions, questions, and more questions, I didn't think you were the quizzing type…Hirako Shinji." Shinji looked surprised as his name was uttered.

"It's rather rude that you know my name but I don't know yours, where are your manners?" Shinji mocked.

Masuki clapped his hands together and Shinji shifted slightly, thinking that he was attacking. "How terribly rude of me; my name is Joushi Masuki, nice to meet you." He said and then bowed.

Shinji took the opportunity and shot forward with his sword arm drawn back to attack and swung his sword in a low arc. Even though Masuki was looking down, he pulled his head back and hopped away, the blade cutting a single hair that had been too slow. Masuki then planted his feet on the wall behind him and bounced forward at Shinji. Shinji took up a guarded stance but Masuki was too quick and grabbed his sword hand with his left, pulling it forward. He then passed his left hand under his own and placed his palm on Shinji's abdomen.

"Hado #1, Sho!"

The invisible shot of reiatsu crashed into his chest and threw Shinji off his feet and, as Masuki had let go of his hand, he flew backwards and crashed through not just one wall; but the entire building before coming to a stop. Shinji righted himself just before he landed and drew his sword up to guard again.

"So you are the one that killed Kuchiki; you have fairly recognisable reiatsu." Shinji said.

"Looks like I have been caught out, not that it makes any kind of difference. If I might suggest Mr Captain of the Gotei 13, you should train your Vice-Captains better; she was far too easy to kill."

"Seems like you don't regret your actions, I'll have to change that." As Shinji began to move forward to attack, Masuki suddenly raised his hand and held it out and then clapped his hands excitedly.

"Seems like the cavalry has arrived, Hirako Shinji; I'll be back in just a sec." and then he vanished.

x+x+x+x+x

Taiki rushed upwards and pulled his fist back to ready a punch just as Zaraki pulled his arm back to strike with his sword. The sword swung down viciously but Taiki dodged to the side and avoided it and the crashed his massive fist into Zaraki's face. Zaraki was lifted off of his feet and thrown into the air as Taiki settled on the rooftop.

Zaraki righted himself in the air and dropped down at an insane speed, aiming to cut Taiki in half. Taiki once again dodged to the side but Zaraki was expecting this and changed the course of his sword and it clipped the giant mans arm, causing a small spurt of blood.

"Well, looks like you pathetic waste of a Captain can actually cut me." Taiki said with his manic grind still plastered on his face. "But I know all about you, Zaraki Kenpachi, you're a pathetic excuse for a Captain. No Shikai, no Bankai, no skill in Kido; a waste of space in my opinion."

"Like I care about your opinion, all I can see is that you're a coward who doesn't want to fight me." Zaraki sneered. "Now fight me properly or you're dead!" he yelled before charging forward and swinging an attack. Taiki rushed forward with equal pleasure and the two clashed with extreme force. Taiki caught Zaraki's sword hand in his own and swung his massive fist towards his face by Zaraki blocked the attack and head butted Taiki in the face and Taiki sprawled backwards as Zaraki rushed forward to continue his attack. Zaraki swung his sword down but it was batted away with the back of Taiki's hand and then Taiki crashed his foot into the Captain pushing him backwards.

"What the hell, Kenpachi! I'm sure you were stronger then this before." Taiki called as he stepped forward completely unharmed.

"Well, it's just this power seal we Captains have to have before reporting to the real world." Zaraki said, pulling aside his hakama to reveal a wide diamond with 7 crosses in it that was tattooed on the left side of his chest. "So we don't inadvertently affect the human world with are power. It kinda sucks but also makes fighting so much more fun!" Zaraki charged forward again but was interrupted by the appearance of Masuki in front of him. Masuki twisted to avoid Zaraki's attack and then punched him in the gut with enough force to clear him out of the immediate area.

"Sorry Taiki, I've got to interrupt you here. The others have arrived and I want you to beat them within an inch of their lives. You can use your blades for this but not killing and no releasing" Masuki said as Zaraki walked out of the rubble of a nearby building and Shinji arrived from where he was, so that both Captains were stood in front of Masuki.

"No problem, as long as I get to beat some Shinigami." Taiki said before moving off in the direction of the 4 new reiatsu's that Masuki could feel.

"Who the hell are you?" Zaraki said but started speaking again before Masuki could reply. "On second thought, I don't care who you are. I just hope you're as strong as your mate over there." Shinji started to move to follow Taiki but Masuki used shunpo and blocked his path.

"I'm afraid the two of you will have to stay where I can see you. I wouldn't want either of you disturbing the message I want to send to you guys."

"Wouldn't a simple letter have sufficed?" Shinji asked with a small grin.

"Stay out of this blondie, this guy is all mine." Zaraki said with a grin.

"Feel free to take care of him but I don't think he'll let me leave."

"Too right Captain." Masuki said

"Just be aware that this guy is strong Zaraki. I believe he is on a whole different level to the guy you were just fighting."

"That just means that this is going to be a whole lot more entertaining!" He laughed loudly and charged forward at Masuki, who simply looked at him with a bored expression on his face. Zaraki swung wildly but accurately at Masuki, but the latter simple weaved and dodged and avoided all the attacks that Zaraki was throwing. Shinji once again tried to move past Masuki with shunpo but Masuki was faster and once again blocked his path and threw a kick that pushed him back.

x+x+x+x+x

Yajuu, Ikkaku, Kira and Hisagi appeared out of the Senkaimon a couple of feet above a white tent structure that was set up in the middle of one of the streets. The sun had completely set now but there was still light from the moon so it wasn't completely dark. The tent was illuminated with bright flood lights and the four of them could hear someone working within it. They dropped to the floor and walked up to the tents entrance but were blocked entry by two Shinigami guards with long two pronged staffs.

"I am sorry but only members authorised by Captain Urahara may enter into here. It is requested that you wait out here until he is ready to talk to you." The right hand one said politely.

"Boring, where's all the action to in this place!" Ikkaku said, adjusting his Zanpakuto that was resting on his shoulders. Just as he did so massive reiatsu exploded from across the city and all six Shinigami looked over there. "Looks like I spoke too soon. Let's get over there."

"Absolutely!" Yajuu agreed and the two Shinigami started moving towards the ruckus before they realised the others were not following. "Um guys…" Yajuu said "The fights that way."

"Captain Otoribashi told me that no one except Captain level Shinigami should engage the enemy, we are only here in a support capacity." Kira said and Hisagi nodded his head in agreement.

"Well, I was given no such order and I'm sure Madarame-san wasn't listening when he was told what he couldn't do." Yajuu replied with a shrug of his shoulders and Ikkaku laughed and hung his arm around Yajuu's shoulders.

"Please call me Ikkaku and you are awesome!" he said with a laugh "Let's go get these suckers!" he moved off with Yajuu close behind. Hisagi and Kira stood still but then they decided that they should stick together so followed the two battle eager ones.

Yajuu and Ikkaku were about half way to the Captains when a massive pressure appeared and stopped them in their tracks. They were stood next to each other and were frozen by the size of the reiatsu that was pressing down on them.

"Wh…what the he…hell?" Yajuu exclaimed "That's…that's insane!"

Suddenly the massive figure of Taiki appeared behind them and he grabbed their heads in his massive hands, nearly completely covering them. "Hi." Was all he said before crashing their heads together like a pair of cymbals. Their foreheads collided and both of them began bleeding but before they could react Taiki backhanded the both of them, sending them in opposite directions and crashing into the surrounding buildings. "That was boring." He said and then lowered his hands and rested them on his Zanpakuto.

Hisagi and Kira then appeared with their own Zanpakuto drawn and held in a guarded position. Taiki disappeared and then reappeared behind Hisagi and drew his Zanpakuto, the black blades cracked and fragile looking, and swinging to attack. Hisagi was quick enough to defend and managed to bring his sword up to defend against the attack. There was the clang and scrape of metal on metal but Taiki's strength was too much for Hisagi and he was pushed away. Kira had reacted as well and swung down from behind Taiki but Taiki spun around, knocking Kira's sword away as he did, and letting go of one of his weapons for a second, grabbed Kira around the head and threw him down onto the building below. Taiki then grabbed his falling weapon before dropping down to the fallen Kira.

He stepped on Kira's back and Kira cried out as blood spurted from his mouth just as Hisagi dropped down and attacked. Taiki looked up and thrust one of his blades at Hisagi who, instead of trying to block with strength, deflected it away with the side of his own blade and then spun around, letting his sword fly and watched as it connected with Taiki's cheek. The blade pressed the skin in but it did not manage to break the skin and draw blood.

"Come on, you're gonna need a whole lot more reiatsu if you want to cut me!" Taiki yelled before turning back to Kira and stabbing down. Before it hit however, he noticed that Kira was now facing towards him and his palm was facing towards him.

"Hado # 58, Tenran!" Kira called and a massive tornado of air hit Taiki point black in the chest. It didn't do any visible damage to the giant but it pushed him back so that Kira was now free. Kira stood up and held his blade low to the ground. "Raise you head, Wabisuke!" his Zanpakuto glowed bright white and then bent and flexed and when it came to a rest, the head of the blade was in a squared hook shape.

"What a weird shape, I hope it makes you stronger!" Taiki said as he moved forward to attack. His attack was blocked with Kira's blade and Kira held it their.

"I just hit your blade 10 times within that one attack." Kira said as he looked up at the massive Taiki. "Do you feel the effects of my sword?"

Taiki frowned and then he suddenly dropped downwards, dragged by his Zanpakuto. It crashed into the ground and created a small crater. A look of surprise was on his face but he swung his second blade up to attack but Kira once again clashed with it with his own sword. Like before, his blade suddenly crashed down next to his other one and Taiki was struggling with them.

"Say your Tanto's weighs about 3 lbs each. My Zanpakuto doubles the weight with every hit I make with it so now your Zanpakuto weighs 3072 lbs each. A weight that, no matter how big you are, you won't be able to fight with." Kira said with his mellow voice.

Taiki's muscles bulged and for a second it looked like he was about to pick them up anyway but a flare of someone else's reiatsu made him look around. Hisagi was stood above the two of them in the air with his sword held parallel to the ground. "Reap, Kazeshini." His Zanpakuto also glowed and then when the light died down he was holding two double headed sickles connected by a long chain. He lifted the right hand one and threw it towards Taiki. It spun like a fan and passed between him and Kira and then wrapped the chain around his arms, pulling them tight into his body, before returning to his hand.

"I think that if we brought you back to soul society alive, it would be better then simple killing you." He said calmly, pulling his weapon to make sure the chains were tight.

Two explosions of dust and rock appeared either side of Taiki and Yajuu and Ikkaku burst out with their weapons drawn. Yajuu had both of his blades drawn and held above his head with his arms crossed and Ikkaku had released his Houzukimaru into its long spear shape.

"He's mine!" the two of them shouted together before attacking. Yajuu swung down with crossed blades and Ikkaku thrust forward with his spear. Ikkaku's spear dug itself into the concrete and Yajuu's swords cut and 'X' shape into it but Taiki was no longer trapped by the weight of his sword or Hisagi's Zanpakuto.

He appeared behind Kira and slammed his left hand Tanto into his back. Kira arced forward from the strength of the attack and the weight of the sword and blood spurted from the wound and flew from his mouth. As his sword left his hand it returned to its sealed state and Taiki watched as he fell to the ground and didn't move.

"I thought that would work. All that weight is really annoying." He then rushed at Hisagi and, before he could defend himself, slashed a deep wound into his chest. Hisagi fell back and his sword also returned to its sealed form. Taiki then dropped down fast and snapped Ikkaku's spear in half with his foot before spinning around and stabbing Yajuu in the side of his knee. Yajuu cried out but Taiki silenced him with another blade in his side, smashing him to the ground and then booted him in the head; breaking his nose and causing more blood to gush out.

Taiki then turned to face Ikkaku who was rushing forward with both halves of his broken spear and yelling with a smile on his face. Taiki knocked aside the bladed half of the spear and ignored the broken side as it splintered against his side. He then rammed his blade into Ikkaku's chest, missing his heart by a few centimetres. Ikkaku was thrown back but his fall was interrupted as Taiki crashed a knee into his stomach and elbowed the back of his head. Ikkaku crashed into the building and through the roof and landed on the floor below.

Taiki looked around at the four Shinigami and shrugged "You guys are no fun at all and it sucks that I can't just kill you off." He then looked across to where the four had come from and noticed Masuki floating above a tent. "Looks like the fun is over, but next time I'll kill you all." He said before opening a Garganta and disappearing inside of it.

x+x+x+x+x

Masuki appeared above the white tent and noticed that Captain Urahara and a few others were inside with two guards outside. He had completely masked his reiatsu so no one noticed he was there. He pressed his palms together as if in prayer and looked down at the tent. "Bakudo, Hachigyo Sougai." He muttered and then interlocked his fingers to make a dome like shape with his hands. An orange coloured dome started forming around the tent and its guards and before anyone could react it had closed and they were trapped within.

Masuki then reached into his pocket and pulled out his mobile phone, he dialled a number and raised it to his ear. It rung three times before someone picked up on the other end. "Your turn." Was all he said before he hung up and turned away from the tent. He seemed to tap the air and opened a doorway that he shaped his Garganta as and stepped through. A small snap sounded as it closed.

_A/N: Took me a while to write this one, I had to change some of it because I got carried away. Anyway hope you liked it so please R&R. Credit goes to oggytheogre321 for Taiki, so ta to you for the character._


	4. Chapter 3: All That's Left

_A/N: There we go, I was meant to post this up yesterday but I started to read a new manga, Psyren, and it sucked me in so I managed to read 118 chapters in just two days! Crazy huh? Anyway, enjoy the chapter!_

**Chapter 3 – All That's Left**

"Your turn."

The young girl snapped the phone shut and slipped it into a dark green bag at the base of her back. She had her long ginger hair tied up into a wild ponytail and two long bangs hung down to frame her face; her fringe was kept out of her eyes by a pair of square glasses perched on her head. She wore a black leather hooded top, the hood dangling down her back, which had dirty brown fur outlining it. A sliver of white at the bottom of it showed that she wore a white t-shirt underneath her top and she wore green camouflaged cargo shorts with chocolate brown sandals on her feet.

The bright sun of the day showed off her pale skin and the freckles on her face stood out more clearly. Her lavender eyes glowed and the way she sat threw her strange half eyebrows into clear relief. She smiled, showing off silver around her teeth, and stood up which made the silver bracelet on her left wrist jingle quietly against the 5 rubber ones she also wore. Her gloved right hand snaked behind her and touched lightly against the hilt of her Zanpakuto; a Wakizashi with a dark green coloured handle, a grey hilt and guard holder and the hand guard was shaped like two crossing wrenches. It was strapped horizontally below her green bag at the base of her back with the hilt on her right hand side.

"Our turn, it's our turn, our turn, it's our turn." She sang as she hopped off the fence she had been sitting on. Now she was standing on the ground her small stature was made apparent as she was only just taller then the fence. She skipped forward a couple of steps and then looked up to the top of a massive tree that was beside her. Using her hand to keep the majority of the sun out of her eyes she caught sight of someone standing on the very top of the tree, the way he was positioned turned the sun into what looked like a demons eye. She lowered her hand, and then used both of them to cup around her mouth.

"ROOOOOOKIIIIIIII!" She shouted as loud as her small body allowed her too, the force of the sound rocking her body back. Her voice echoed around the area and birds took flight in fear. The shadow atop the tree shifted and then launched itself of towards the ground, it splayed out its arms and legs as it fell to slow its decent. The person landed in a cloud of dust that, when cleared, showed that it was a he and he had landed with his legs bent which, because of their length, meant that his knees were close to the level of his ears.

"I told you…" he said with a growl, his grin of sharpened teeth growing ever so slightly wider "…my name is Rokurou, Tomoyo." He then tilted his head casually to the side and unfolded himself; unfolded himself in every sense of the word. He straightened his legs and extended himself to his extremely tall true height. As he stretched his arms and legs it showed that Tomoyo's head just brushed the edge of his waist in height, meaning he was just about twice as tall as the young girl.

Rokurou had medium length black hair, some of which floated in front of his blue eyes, but was mostly covered by a black baseball cap. His grin, still wide and obvious, showed that he had sharp shark-like teeth and he was wearing a black zipped jumper that hung around his slim frame with black tracksuit bottoms and dark blue trainers on his feet. He had his Zanpakuto strapped across his back with a sort of holster/backpack mix that also had little pouches that had various equipment scattered about them. The sword had a sky blue coloured handle and its hand guard was shaped like a circular saw.

The strange pair was stood at the end of a large street of broken houses and homemade shacks. The people in the area were either randomly fighting or lounging about the place. Some of them had weapons by their sides, some of them kicked and punched; it was like an unending riot. This is what it was always like in Rukongai, specifically District 80, called Zaraki and was known as the most dangerous and unruly of all the districts within Soul Society. Tomoyo and Rokurou stepped away from each other so that they were about 3 paces apart and then placed their hands on their Zanpakuto.

"Let's get this party started." Rokurou said with his grin still wide on his face.

At the same time both of them drew their swords, both with their right hands, Tomoyo pulling it straight to the right and then letting it hang by her side and Rokurou pulling up, his long arms allowing him to fully pull the sword out with no trouble, and mimicking Tomoyo in her stance.

"Me first!" Tomoyo cried and started to run forward. After three steps she disappeared and then reappeared running along the left hand of the street, then after another three paces she appeared to the right of the street. She was moving fast enough that only the very best of the spirits fighting or loitering barely registered something moving past them. She repeated the action of flitting from right to left until she reached the end of the street, where she turned around and started back the other way until she ended up back where she started; standing next to Rokurou. Rokurou raised his sword and held it out to his right, the blade parallel to the ground. "3…2…" Tomoyo counted down with her free hand "…1!" as she stopped talking all the buildings were suddenly shredded as if slashed with an invisible sword.

"Aahahahaha!" Rokurou laughed loudly and his reiatsu increased dramatically, but he kept the pressure from pushing everyone down, and swung his sword in a wide horizontal arc. The barely visible energy travelled down the centre of the street like the tidal wave of an oncoming flood. It cut down everyone who got in the way, slicing people in half, cutting heads off and causing carnage throughout. Most of the other spirits had now begun to move, the ones with weapons charging towards their two assailants and the rest spiriting the other way. Rokurou sprinted forward and started the slaughter. He weaved and ducked, spun and corkscrewed, and never came to a stop throughout. He followed his wave of reiatsu like a much bigger wave, his movement's fluid like the water but extensively move dangerous. His blade cut through people with ease, and even those who managed to get their blade up to block an attack were cut down; their flimsy blades no match for Rokurou.

As when Tomoyo attacked, Rokurou was moving across the street, back and forth, making sure that every living thing that resided there was killed. By the time he had reached the end of the street, it was like someone had painted the entire area in red. The blood of Rokurou's victims was splashed everywhere and was dripping off of his blade but not a drop had reached his clothing. As Rokurou turned to walk back to where he had started, a survivor rushed out of the nearby tree's and charged at Tomoyo with a square blade. Tomoyo simply stepped back to avoid the amateur swing and slid her blade into his throat at an angle so it popped out the back of his head. The man gurgled and blood came from his mouth and wound, his blade dropping to the floor, his body following as Tomoyo removed her blade and flicked it to get the blood off of it.

Again, just as Rokurou started forward someone else appeared in the centre of the street, about half way between Rokurou and Tomoyo. The man was wearing a black hakama that indicated he was a Shinigami.

"What about the Shinigami, Tomoyo, can we kill him?" Rokurou said and the Shinigami moved his hand to his Zanpakuto.

"Masuki told us to kill everyone who was in the Zaraki district and he is here so, yeah we can kill him." Tomoyo said as she cocked her head to the right in thought. The Shinigami moved to draw his sword but before he could Tomoyo and Rokurou both disappeared and drove their blades into him. Rokurou's height meant he thrust downwards and pierced his heart from above on the right hand side whereas Tomoyo stabbed him through the left hand side of his heart and because of her height it was upwards. The Shinigami coughed up blood as he muttered a few words.

"Who are you people?" he coughed.

"Just some visiting visitors!" Tomoyo said and then withdrew her blade, Rokurou copying her and they both sheathed their weapons and watched the Shinigami fall to the floor and then disintegrate into spirit particles.

7 minutes later the two of them had finished off the remaining spirits of the Zaraki district, killing two other Shinigami that appeared as they were working, and were stood at the edge of district 79. Tomoyo reached into her bag and pulled out her phone, flipped it open and dialled a number. It rang three times before a male voice answered.

"We're finished; it's your turn now." Tomoyo sang before hanging up and followed Rokurou into the Garganta he had just opened.

x+x+x+x+x

"I've found them!" the 4th division Shinigami called as he stumbled upon the unconscious and battered Ikkaku, stabbed and broken Yajuu, slashed Hisagi and pierced Kira. Ikkaku was half buried by the rubble of the building and lying in a pool of blackened dry blood, the wound in his chest deep and serious. The Shinigami that had found the group dropped into the hole and turned Ikkaku over to reveal his wound.

"This is a terrible wound!" he said as he lowered his hands to Ikkaku's chest and poured his reiatsu into his hands, which started to glow with a green light. "I'll be able to keep him alive, but we need to get him back to the barracks for immediate medical attention.

A second Shinigami that had appeared dropped down to Kira and inspected the wound in his back. It had pierced his lung and hand clipped the side of his spine, causing some of the vertebrae to misalign. "Vice-Captain Kira is also in critical condition! If we don't get this wound treated properly he could, at worse, die but at the every least he would be paralysed." The Shinigami also lowered his hands and started to stabilise the wound with healing Kido.

Another member of the 11th medic squad of the 4th division dropped down to Hisagi and inspected the seemingly unthreatening wound in his chest. The wound looked shallow but it had sliced a small cut into Hisagi's heart and most of the blood and seeped into the gaps around his organs instead of leaking out of the wound. "Vice-Captain Hisagi has massive internal bleeding, I think I'll be able to heal the wound but we need to take him back so that we can drain the blood around his organs."

The fourth and final member of the small team knelt down beside Yajuu to inspect his wounds. The knee wound had broken the leg and dislocated the knee but wasn't life threatening, the broken nose was no problem at all and the Shinigami moved it back into place there and then and with a brief burst of healing Kido fixed it into place. The side wound was more serious as it had pierced Yajuu's lung and made it difficult for him to breath. The Shinigami popped his knee back into place but ignored the broken leg for the moment; he placed his hands over the side wound and also started work on keeping Yajuu alive.

The Shinigami in charge of the 11th medical squad of the 4th division, called Zatenrai Hitotsu, appeared above them and dropped to the roof of the building they were on. "How are they?" he asked

"Madarame-san has a deep wound an inch to the left of his heart, the main problem he has is the amount of blood he has lost from the wound. We will have to take him back to HQ and restore nearly all of the blood in his body."

"We have a member of the Kido corps coming to keep the Senkaimon open while we transport all casualties back to Soul Society. We have emergency medical teams waiting there to take them back to the 4th division barracks." Hitotsu then moved across to the second Shinigami that was treating Kira. "What about him?"

"He's received a massive blow directly into back by either someone incredibly strong, or something incredibly heavy. The wound has pierced the back of his lung slightly and pushed his vertebrae out of alignment, we'll need to move him slowly and carefully in order to make sure he is not paralysed."

"I'll have the Shinigami open the gate up as close to the Vice-Captain as possible to make sure that he isn't moved much in transport." Hitotsu said and the Shinigami nodded in agreement as Hitotsu moved across to Hisagi. "And him?"

"He had a small break in the wall of his heart that has leaked blood into his body and it is compressing his organs to dangerous levels. I've managed to nearly completely seal the wound but we'll need to drain all the blood as soon as we get back." The Shinigami said, not looking up from his patient.

"Alright, that shouldn't be too hard." Hitotsu then moved off and stopped next to the Shinigami treating Yajuu "How is he?"

"The wound in his leg is nothing to worry about, I've knocked the knee back into place and the leg should be easy to fix once we're back. The wound in his side has pierced his lung and his breathing is getting more shallow and quick the longer he is here, so he'll need surgery as soon as he can get it."

"Ok then, keep them stabilised and hopefully the Kido Corps member will appear soon." No sooner had he finished talking, then the paper door that represented the human world side of the Senkaimon appeared just to the edge of the building, near to where Kira had fallen. Hitotsu moved over there and met the Shinigami walking out of it. He was wearing a sash across his chest that indicated he was part of the Kido corps. "Oh good you've arrived. I was going to call you and make sure you get it open near Vice-Captain Kira but you did it anyway, so that's good."

"That was lucky." The Shinigami said "I'll stay this side and keep the Senkaimon open for as long as you need to transport the injured."

"Good, you'll have to keep it open as well for the casualties that aren't here."

"This isn't it?" he asked, a look of worry on his face.

"No. We've also got two injured Captains across the way and we still can't find Captain Urahara and his research team. They've seemed to have disappeared completely."

"How troublesome, I will have to call back and send for another member of the Kido corps, they will be able to go over by the Captains and open up a Senkaimon Tsunagari for them to use. It will save them from bringing the Captains all the way over here."

"A Senkaimon Tsunagari, what's that?" Hitotsu asked.

"It's a separate gate that can link to an open Senkaimon and allow for multiple doors to be opened on the human side at once." He explained before he pulled out a phone and put it to his ear. He had a brief conversation with someone before put it away in his hakama and sat to the right of the door, his hands pressed together as if in prayer. "I'll keep this gate open; my friend will do the other one."

x+x+x+x+x

Zaraki Kenpachi was in an extremely critical condition; he was lying face up on the ground and was surrounded by a pool of his own blood. It had long since dried and was starting to blacken, although it was starting to disperse now that Captain Unohana had started emergency medical treatment on him. His eyes were open but clearly weren't seeing anything; he had two deep cuts in his neck, two long cuts down either side of his torso, a cut along the back of his bicep and forearm and the back of his hand, deep buts in the side of his thighs and the back of his shins, he even had deep cuts across the top of his feet. The reason for all of these cuts was because every tendon in his body had been cut by Masuki. Zaraki also had four circular holes in his torso, two in his chest and two in his stomach which seemed, for some reason, to make it harder for him to be healed.

Shinji was lying next to Zaraki but seemed to be unharmed; there were no cuts or any sign on the outside that he was injured. However, soon after Unohana had arrived she had discovered that all his organs had been sealed in a Kido barrier she had never before seen. Seeing as Shinji would not have lasted long in this condition, Unohana reasoned that the barriers only appeared when they arrived; so either the assailant new when they would arrive and it was time based, it reacted to proximity or maybe that it was related to reiatsu in the surrounding area.

The two injured Captains and Unohana were within a green tinted diamond barrier that was being maintained by a mid-level Kido Corps Shinigami at each corner. It was not directly related to healing purposes but it allowed Unohana to do the best she could without having to worry about the conditions getting worse. She was sat cross legged with her hands on her knees, palm up. A green stream of energy was flowing from each of her hands and connected with the chests of the two casualties. Her eyes were closed and she was clearly in deep concentration in trying to save the lives of her fellow Captains.

As she tried to keep them alive a bright light appeared behind her and a Shinigami with a Kido Corps sash stepped out and walked across to talk to Unohana. Before he could reach her he was interrupted by Isane Kotetsu, Vice-Captain of the 4th divisions, who stepped in front of him.

"Don't interrupt her at this point. What do you want?"

"Sorry, Vice-Captain Kotetsu, I am from the Kido Corps and am here to provide transport for the injured back to Soul Society. I will maintain the gate, so when you are ready, just walk on through." He said as he moved to the left hand side of the gate and sat down.

"Thank you, we should be ready to move them soon."

"Okay then." He replied and then pressed his palms together in front of him.

x+x+x+x+x

Captain Urahara was standing outside of his tent and looking quizzically at the barrier that had contained him and his team. He moved his hand close to the barrier and watched as small tendrils of energy started to appear and move towards his hand.

"The barrier is perfectly spherical and appears to guard both above and below ground. Whenever someone gets to near it, the small tendrils appear and attempt to touch the person." He mused before turning to one of the guards that was about to actually touch the barrier. "Stop! No-one is to touch the barrier!" he called and the Shinigami quickly withdrew his hand. "We have to figure out what it does before I can try anything. Have we managed to get in contact with the Captain-Commander yet?"

"The link seems to be working but it is taking longer to actually connect to the other side." The Shinigami replied.

"Mmm, no doubt it is the barrier that is interfering with the connection." He moved his hand to his chin and looked up just as two Shinigami passed over the top of them. "The barrier also seems to make us unnoticeable to people on the outside; either by moving us to a different dimension or affecting the minds of those coming close to it." Urahara dropped back into deep thought again but before too long he was interrupted.

"Captain, we've now got contact with the Captain-Commander!" the Shinigami said.

Urahara swept passed him and entered the tent, it was split up into four sections; the site where Rukia was killed, reiatsu analysis, experimentations and communications. The site where Rukia's body, until recently, resided was used to get reiatsu samples and investigation into her cause of death, the reiatsu analysis was where the reiatsu taken from the site of death was investigated and compared to all known reiatsu types, the experimentation section was where Urahara was trying out new machines he had made to make it easier to do his work and the communications section speaks for itself.

Urahara ignored the other sections and entered into the communications section. There was a large screen, which was surrounded by a purple pulsating flesh-like substance, on the far side and it had Yamamoto's face on it. Every now and again a white line of fuzz would pass down the screen indicating that there is interference with the signal.

"Captain Urahara, where is your current position?" Yamamoto asked

"I haven't moved Captain, but a barrier was put up around my research tent and it seems to make us unnoticeable to people on the outside. I request that that either the Captain or Vice-Captain of the Kido Corps be sent down to examine the barrier and then release it if it is possible."

Yamamoto raised an eyebrow slightly "Can you not yourself release the barrier."

"I'm afraid not, without information on it I could simply be making it worse. It does not seem to be within the numbered Kido spells that the Shinigami used and was most probably invented by the assailant themselves."

"I will send Vice-Captain Ushoda down to help you, just send us the exact coordinates of your location and he'll work from there."

"Thank you." The screen then went blank and Urahara turned to one of his associates "Send the coordinates immediately."

x+x+x+x+x

Hachigen Ushoda, Vice-Captain of the Kido Corps, stepped out into the real world and immediately realised that there was some powerful Kido being applied into the area. He could feel four massive pressures of Kido and a number of smaller ones. He recognised the smaller ones to be the healing Kido of the 4th division and one of the big ones as Captain Unohana. The other three large ones were constructed from a strange and unknown Reiatsu.

He was wearing normal Shinigami robes but with a dark purple overcoat that indicated he was the Vice-Captain of the Kido Corps. His pink hair was stylised into horns with black tips and the emblem of the Kido Corps was coloured black in the centre of his head. He knew he was sent here to help Captain Urahara and through deduction he could figure out that it was the lone large Kido in effect; the other two mysterious ones being accompanied by Captain Unohana. He moved of in the direction of the energy but when he got there he could see nothing. He then remembered that his Captain had told him that Urahara had guessed that the barrier he was surrounded by was somehow making it invisible from the outside. Hachigen put his palms together and started a revealing Kido.

"Those which hide, those that are hidden, those that wish not to be found, the sky looks and the ground shakes; Bakudo #42, Hikaku Horoimono!"

A bubble of Kido energy appeared around his hands and then started to grow larger. As it reached the side of the barrier that contained Urahara, both the orb and the barrier glowed brightly before the orb disappeared altogether but the area of the barrier that had been touch was still lit up.

Hachigen dropped down to the level of the revealed area and put his hands together again, this time with his index fingers straight up and his middle fingers over the top of them with the remaining ones locked down.

"Bakudo #50, Shouheki Kirema!" he called before extending his right hand while keeping his left hand held up by his chest. As the hand got close to the barrier it started to emit a blue glow which started to seep into the barrier. However, after a few seconds the light was extinguished and small tendrils of orange energy, from the barrier, jumped out and grabbed hold of Hachigen's hand. Hachigen gasped in surprise and cried out when the tendrils climbed up his arms and wherever they touched they ripped his skin open, causing blood to jump out. Hachigen snapped is hand away and the tendril disappeared. He inspected his arm but it was not too damaged that it would not work.

"Whoever constructed this barrier is extremely adept in the use of Kido and has managed to create something of his own." He muttered to himself before placing his hands together once again, this time all his fingers were interlocked. "I guess I will have to try something higher."

"Bakudo #90, Kyougeki Shouheki Kirema!" This time he did not move his hands but blue tendrils of energy jumped away from his hands and pierced the edge of the barrier with sharp points. The blue energy then started to spread across the entire barrier, revealing its shape and location, and within minutes it had revealed the tent that was trapped within it. Hachigen then dropped his right hand and stabbed two fingers into the energy "Kai!" he called and the barrier shattered like broken glass. Hachigen was now sweating and panting slightly, brushing some of the sweat away with the sleeve of his hakama.

Captain Urahara then walked out of the tent and waved up to Hachigen "Thank you, Ushoda-Kun!" he called happily.

_A/N: a~nd completed! Watch out for the next chapter in this thrilling series! Hope you enjoyed it and have enjoyed it so far. Please Read & Review._

_Credit for the character Tomoyo goes to Tateno Atsukino, so thanks to you for the awesome character. Credit goes to Newtilator for the OC of Rokurou another wicked character. _


	5. Chapter 4: Surprises

_A/N: Terribly sorry for the massoofage delay in getting this chapter up people. A combination of temporary writers block, work, money, new games and laziness led to it being so late. Anyway, Hope you enjoy it, so read ahead!_

**Chapter 4 – Surprises**

"We're finished; it's your turn now."

The small boy hung up his phone and slipped it into his breast pocket; he then turned to his partner and looked up at him. "You know what we have to do, Sly?"

"Yeah, I know. It's not exactly rocket science now is it, Nakashima?" replied the taller of the two. "I still don't know why Masuki has us doing this anyway."

"Because it's all part of the plan he and I came up with."

"You're in on the whole plan! That's so unfair, but oh well, let's just do this."

Nakashima Todayoshi's pale skin, golden blonde hair and light blue eyes all added to his look as a young boy. His hair was cut short and bristly, sticking nearly straight up all over. He wore a long sleeve white shirt, with a black tie around his neck, and dark brown shorts that stopped just above his knees. He had long white knee length socks and black leather shoes on his feet. He carried a dark blue back pack on his back and his Zanpakuto was strapped to the right hand side upside down. Its handle was a standard red colour but it had no hand guard, leading straight into the blade; which was standard length.

Sly Hitori, Nakashima's partner, was about a head taller then his comrade and had a more athletic build about him. His hair was nearly black and he had spiked it up with gel so it rose about an inch and a half above his head. His eyes were a charcoal grey and his skin was lightly, but noticeably, tanned. He was wearing a sleeveless black t-shirt that had a white skull printed on the front; he wore blue jeans and white trainers with a single fingerless glove on his right hand.

The two were stood just outside of entrance to the underground prison that was known as the maggots nest. They had passed through the 2nd divisions grounds without being noticed and even managed to cross the moat without using the single bridge that was usually used. They were now inside the main wall but outside the long alley of trees that led to the actual entrance. Looking down the alley, Sly could see the two Onmitsukido guards that are always at the entrance to the underground complex and saw that they were stood about 5 paces apart; too far for what he was planning to do but that was all designed into the plan made by Nakashima.

Sly moved to the right, away from the alley, and then disappeared from behind the trees. Nakashima stood close to the edge of the entrance but he made sure that the enemy couldn't see him where he was. Nakashima then heard a high pitched whistle which he knew was the signal for the plan to begin.

Nakashima walked out into the open and stood in the centre of the alley, now painfully obvious to the guards, and paused. Instantly the two guards grew wary but did not move. Nakashima walked down the path slowly with his hands held clearly in front of him, palms up to show he held nothing in them. As he got closer to the two Onmitsukido members, they stepped forward and inward, to block the door and keep Nakashima a good distance away, so they were now closer together. Nakashima did not stop and continued walking, forcing the guards to make another movement like before, but this time their hands moved to hover over the hilts of their swords. Nakashima was now only two paces away from the guards and they were two paces away from each other.

"Just what I want." Sly said as he suddenly appeared behind the two guards. They both jumped in surprise and moved to draw their swords, only to realise they are missing. Then the blades appeared out of their chests, having pierced their hearts from behind. Sly had a blade in each hand and with his back turned to them he inserted the blades upwards through their hearts. "To easy, these ninja guys." He said as he dropped the blades to the ground "But I suppose I knew that after I killed all the other ones." As he said this, a multitude of bodies fell out of the trees, each one with a stab wound through their hearts.

"Speedy as usually, Sly, now let's get on with the mission." Nakashima said and pushed open the door to the infamous Maggots Nest.

The two of them walked down the stairs, through the cave that was dripping with moisture and gave off the feeling of a dungeon. At the bottom of the staircase there was a small walk before they came to a large door; slightly taller then double the size of Sly. Nakashima gestured with his hand and Sly reached forward to the door handle, giving it a tug and then pushing it when he realised it was a push door.

"That was a lot lighter then I thought it would be." He said as he stepped into the large open area, Nakashima stepping in behind him.

The Maggots Nest was quite a large room with various levels, the roof was tiled stone but the walls and floor were just carved into the right shape. Mulling around the place, sitting on the various chairs or leaning against the rock were a number of people, all looking very bored and all dressed in plain white robes with black sashes around their waists. As Sly and Nakashima entered the room, only a few of the detainee's looked in their direction but didn't do anything else. Nakashima stayed where he was by the door but Sly moved closer to the centre of the room, moving between the occupants.

"So then, what do we do from here Nakashima?" he asked casually looking around.

"Give it a couple of seconds Sly." He replied and glanced towards his wrist, even though he wasn't wearing a watch.

With a mighty roar one of the largest occupants emerged from behind one of the boulders and charged at Sly. Sly watched him as he approached and as he raised a massive hand to crush him beneath it. The hand came down fast but Sly simply sidestepped the blow, causing the massive hand to throw bits of rock and dust into the air. Sly then jumped into the air, flipped sideways and landed on the giants back, his own sword drawn and the point touching the back of the mans neck.

"You sort of remind me of Taiki." He said, and then rammed the sword down so it emerged out of his throat. "Not as strong though." He jumped back to the floor and slid his sword back into the scabbard, the skull shaped guard clinking against it. The, now dead, prisoner fell to the floor with a thump and it took a couple of seconds for the body to stop twitching. Once it had, Nakashima stepped forward and spoke loudly so that all the prisoners could hear what he was saying.

"As you can see, you are no match for us in strength and if we wanted to, you would all be dead." He paused to draw a breath. "However, it has been deemed that you would be far more use to us if you were alive. I propose to you that you follow me and my comrade here…" he gestured towards Sly who was flicking his eyes about curiously "to our home and help us when the time comes." Most of them seemed to come out of their trances, which were caused by being captive so long, but none of them spoke. Not until a quite tall and muscular man stepped forward, he had red hair that he let hang loose to the right hand of his head, and a pair of glasses were perched on his nose.

"What would we gain from following you?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper.

"Apart from your freedom? You will be made stronger and then you will be able to gain your revenge against the Shinigami who imprisoned you here." Nakashima answered with confidence.

"You can guarantee this?" the same one asked in his whisper.

"Without a single doubt, our boss is quite powerful."

The man pondered for a few seconds and then nodded, and as he did so the rest of them nodded as well. It seemed that the red haired man was the ring leader of the group of prisoners

"Follow me then." Nakashima said and then tapped the air beside him, causing a Garganta to open up behind him, he then pulled his phone out of his breast pocket and dialled a number; waiting three rings before it was answered.

"We're done here." He said before hanging up and walking into the doorway, the prisoners following and Sly bringing up the rear.

x+x+x+x+x

At the fourth division's medical barracks, things had turned rather hectic with the arrival of the support team and injured Captains. The three third seats and Yajuu were lined up next to each other and were under constant supervision by the 4th seat of the 4th division and the two Captains, Zaraki Kenpachi and Shinji Hirako, were still in intensive care with Captain Unohana.

Yajuu's friend, Kuri Hinata, was impatiently waiting outside the room he was in. She had heard from a friend that the support team that had been sent to the real world had all been killed and she had been terrified. She had rushed to the 4th division and was relieved when she found out that they had not been killed but had been pretty badly injured. From then she had not moved from her position outside the room, waiting for the word that she could go in and see him.

In the room behind her she heard some noise and then Captain Unohana walked out, sweat upon her brow and looking very tired. Isane rushed up to her and they had a whispered conversation that Kuri could not hear before Isane rushed off, only slightly hesitantly and with a last glance at her Captain. Captain Unohana saw Kuri and walked over to her, Kuri was too worried to remember to show proper respect to Unohana; not that she minded.

"Kuri Hinata? You are a friend of Yajuu's, correct?" she asked, her face showing kindness, despite her clear exhaustion.

"Yes, is he alright!" she asked hurriedly, tumbling over her words as she spoke.

"He'll be fine, Hinata-san. The relief squads did a fine job in the real world. A days rest and he should be back on his feet with the others that were with him."

"Thank you so much Captain Unohana, what about the injured Captains?"

A look of worry crossed Unohana's face. "They are stabilised but still in a serious condition."

"Who could do that to them?" Kuri asked

"Someone with a large amount of power." Unohana said, distracted. "I am sorry Hinata-San but I must rest now."

"Am I allowed to go in and see him?" Kuri asked desperately.

"I should think so." Unohana said with a smile and then walked off in the direction of her room.

Kuri jumped up from her chair and moved towards the doorway that led to the room Yajuu in. She knocked politely and heard the 4th seat call her in, so she opened the door and stepped into the room. The 4th seat was a female and she was leaning across Ikkaku and inspecting the wound on his chest. It had nearly completely healed but had left a cross shaped scar just to the left of his heart. Apart from calling her in, the 4th seat ignored her as Kuri made her way across to the far side of the room where Yajuu was.

He was lying on the bed with no cover; he had had the top half of his hakama taken off and the right leg of the bottom half was rolled up to reveal the wound in his right knee. Both entry wounds of the enemy's blades had been fully closed but a small scar remained in both his leg and his side. Kuri sat on the stool that stood next to his bed and rested her hand on his chest. His breathing was normal and it seemed that he was only sleeping.

"What did you go and do Yajuu?" She asked quietly.

"Not much" was the reply and Kuri jumped a mile as Yajuu opened his eyes and pulled himself into a sitting position, stretching his neck and shoulders muscles.

"Man, I hate being cooped up in the med centre."

"You idiot, how could you go and get yourself so beaten up."

"Hey, I said I'd be back soon did I not." Yajuu replied with a grin on his face, which earned him a hard slap. "Ow ow ow, okay, I'm sorry. It was just a surprise that the guy was so powerful." He looked down at his hand and clenched it tight, a serious look on his face.

"Hey, he was powerful enough to take down three third seats; did you really think an unseated Shinigami would have a chance." She said kindly but drew back as Yajuu flicked his head up and gazed half angrily, half playfully into her eyes.

"I suppose it's about time I showed you the real me." He swivelled on his butt and swung his legs down to the floor and rolled down the leg of his hakama. He reached down and picked up his top, and as he was putting it on he turned to the 4th seat that was taking care of him and the others. "I'm fine to go right?" he asked as he finished tying his obi.

"I believe so, but take it easy for a day or to. I wouldn't like to see you back here too soon now." She said with a smile. "You can pick your Zanpakuto up at the desk at the door, just give your name and you'll get it back." She then returned to the clipboard she was examining.

Yajuu suddenly yawned and stretched his arms out like a cat before grabbing hold of Kuri's wrist and pulling her towards the door. "Now I'm going to do it I'm all hyped up. Come on hurry up." Kuri simply smiled as she was pulled across the room.

Not too long later, the two of them were standing outside the 8th division training grounds. It was designed after a human world football stadium, the only difference being the 'pitch' was a large dry sand oval. There was no-one in the stands as Yajuu and Kuri entered the arena but there was a figure stood in the centre. Yajuu grinned and Kuri gasped as they both realised who it was. The straw hat and pink haori were a dead giveaway. Yajuu, with Kuri, walked forwards until they were about 5 paces in front of their captain.

"How did you know Captain?" Yajuu asked, his grin still on his face.

"Oh, I happened to be lying on the roof of the 4th division medical centre when Kuri-Chan came in." he said with his usual sly smile.

Yajuu nodded "I wondered why you didn't come to visit me; I suppose you happened to time it just as Kuri was walking in?"

"Such is my luck, I suppose."

"Where's Vice-Captain Yadomaru I've no problem with her watching. She knows all about it as well." Yajuu glanced over his Captains shoulder and saw the female Vice-Captain appear with Shunpo. "Vice-Captain. If you could take Kuri over to the stands we'll get this show on the road."

"What are you showing me Yajuu?" Kuri asked with a confused look on her face but before she could wait for an answer, Lisa was dragging her across to the stands.

"Just watch and you will see." Lisa whispered as they both took a seat, Lisa pulling out a manga to read.

"Since I was told to take it easy by the 4th division, and we all know how scary they can be when we don't listen to them, shall we do a bit of warm up first, Captain?" Yajuu said as he slowly drew his Zanpakuto, the two blades scrapping against their scabbards, and held them loosely by his sides.

"Of course we can." He replied and drew the longer of his two weapons.

"Just the one sword, Captain?" Yajuu asked but didn't wait for an answer as he shot forward, his left sword held in front of him and his right one dragging behind.

As he approached Kyouraku, the Captain pulled his sword up to guard his body but it was slapped away by the power of Yajuu's swing and he only just blocked the second swing by Yajuu's other sword.

"I always forget that your first swing is always so powerful Kikuishi-Kun. I guess it'll have to be two swords after all." He had had to draw his Wakizashi in order to block the wide swing Yajuu had made in an attempt to slice into Kyouraku's side. The two of them held the position for a few seconds and then Yajuu jumped away and readied for another attack.

Yajuu didn't wait long before he attacked again, he rushed forward but his right thrust was deflected by the skilled Kyouraku and his left swing bounced away. He aimed a swipe at the neck, but Kyouraku ducked and aimed an upper thrust to the chin. Yajuu leant back to dodge the attack and jumped away before bouncing of the floor and attacking like a spring.

Metal clashed and swords parried as the two Shinigami danced around, the longer the fight drew on the more they moved around the entire area. It had been going on for a bit now, and they were getting more and more energetic but neither of them showed any signs of tiring. Kuri watched in amazement as her friend seemed to fight on par with his own Captain but then shook her head in disbelief.

"Captain Kyouraku must be holding back, there's no way someone like Yajuu could keep up to him." She muttered to herself and was surprised when Lisa replied.

"You'd be surprised how powerful Kikuishi-san is, and although the Captain is holding back, he's still trying." She said while still reading her manga, of which she was about half way through now.

"How do you know that?"

"Have you not noticed that he has taken his hat off?"

Kuri looked across at her Captain and realised that he was not wearing his hat anymore and then noticed that it was on the seat next to Lisa. "When did he…?"

"Earlier when the two of them jumped over us, Yajuu knew what he wanted to do so they both moved this way. It was only time they passed out of the boundaries."

Kuri was amazed at the observation skills Lisa showed, even though her eyes seemed to never leave the pages in front of her. However, as much as she admired her Vice-Captain her eyes inevitably moved back to the fight between her friend and her Captain.

Yajuu's crossed swords clashed against his Captains long sword and he flipped over head to avoid the short sword, its blade passing through where he had been seconds before. He landed in a crouch and in one fluid movement switched to a reverse grip and swung at Kyouraku's waist, but he used shunpo and easily avoided the attack. Yajuu then stood up straight and stabbed his sword into the ground, the blades facing away from his Captain. He wiped his hand across his brow and found a thin film of sweat on the back of his hand.

"Well then, that about makes the warm up. You ready for the real thing Captain."

Kyouraku's sly smile crept on his face and he lifted his Wakizashi in his left hand up so the blade was straight up and then crossed it with his long sword in his right. "I think so Kikuishi-kun."

Yajuu's eyebrows rose slightly "You're going to as well Captain?"

"I think it would be best." He said "Flower Wind rage and Flower God roar, Heavenly Wind rage and Demon King sneer…"

Yajuu grinned and placed his hands on the hilt of his swords, the force causing them to swivel round so the blades were facing Kyouraku "Strike twice…"

x+x+x+x+x

Urahara Kisuke was sat at his desk in the Shinigami Research and Development Institute and was fiddling with what looked like a dead body. He had he's hand deep in the chest cavity up to his elbows and the movements he was making was reminiscent of playing with a Rubik's cube.

"So Tessai, you have any luck with that Kido I was telling you about." He asked without looking away.

The question was directed at Tessai Tsukabishi, the Captain of the Kido Corps, and wasn't in that position for show for show. If there was a Kido he didn't know about, then it was practically non existent. However, the Kido Urahara was talking about was just one of those.

"I'm afraid that I've never seen or heard anything about a Kido that can not only attack you if you try to escape it but also erases you from existence. I know of some that can hide presence and reiatsu and so on but nothing on the calibre that you are describing."

"Then that is worrying. A Kido that not even you are aware of; and I've also proved that they are using Garganta as a way of escaping."

"So what are they?"

"Not entirely sure but I'm pretty certain they are creating the Garganta themselves so either they've worked out how to use it or are using a Kido that makes something very similar to a Garganta." Urahara replied, finally turning away from his work and leaning on the table. "I think it's pretty much a given that one of the enemy is extremely adept at Kido, maybe even to your level."

"Maybe even greater then my level, if whoever made that Kido is also as adept at normal Kido then he is beyond me."

Urahara raised a hand and placed it on his chin. "What did Hachigen have to say about the barrier?"

"He had to use a level 90 spell to break it and a level 50 spell didn't work, so we can gather it is within the power of a level 51 to 89 spell."

"Worrying, I'll have to report my findings to the Captain Commander soon so I'm gonna work some more on their abilities." Urahara then turned around and Tessai knew that he would be sunk within his work for a while and left silently without saying anything. His long purple cloak whipped through the door as it slid shut behind him.

x+x+x+x+x

Yajuu was lying on his back, his two swords just out of arms reach beside him. He was relatively unharmed; the only thing that showed he had been fighting was his blackened face and slightly scruffy Hakama. Kuri ran over to him from the stands and helped him to his feet, handing him his swords which he slipped into the scabbards.

"That was amazing Yajuu, I had no idea you could do that." She said happily. "But I didn't think you'd be able to beat the Captain."

"Nyah, I could have won if he hadn't used his Shikai abilities. I don't know everything he can do after all." He said with a small laugh and turned o Kyouraku who had just slipped his own swords into their scabbards.

"Well done Kikuishi-Kun, you have gotten more powerful then the last time we spared. If you ever want a promotion, come and tell me; the 3rd seat is waiting for you." He said and clapped Yajuu on the shoulder.

"Nah, I like being down with the normal people, keeps me sane most of the time." Yajuu replied.

"Well then…" Kyouraku said and paused as Lisa appeared behind him and gave him his hat back. "I have some work to do, so I'll leave it here for today." Both Yajuu and Kuri bowed and Kyouraku waved before he and Lisa disappeared with Shunpo.

"So then, Kuri what were you saying about 3rd seats?" He said with a grin and started walking towards the exit, Kuri in tow.

_A/N: Phew, took me a while to finish that one. Credit goes to Shadowjohn101 for the character of Sly Hitori and credit to YellowChris for the lovely Nakashima Todayoshi; both awesome characters by the way. I'll get the next chapter out earlier then usual to make up for the delay in this one. Please read and Review!_

_Also, do you guys want a 'Next Time' at the end of chapters or are you fine with waiting until it comes out?_


	6. Chapter 5: Funerals

_A/N: A hard chapter to write for me, I'm not so good at the whole 'sad' thing so forgive me if it ain't so good. Anywhos read on!_

**Chapter 5 – Funerals**

"We're done here."

The man flipped the phone shut and slipped it back into the pocket of his trousers. Along with a woman, who was slightly shorter then he was, he was walking down a rather long corridor that had a door every 3 metres of so. As the couple approached them, the doors would slide apart and as soon as they had stepped through it would snap shut behind them and the two of them would hear a lock sliding into place and there was no doubt Kido barriers involved as well.

The man had short bristly blonde hair that stuck straight up and his eyes were a dark shade of crimson. He was wearing a white t-shirt with a light blue, slightly puffy, jacket over the top. His blue jeans hung loosely around his legs and he wore black trainers on his feet. His sword was on the back of his belt, presently with the handle facing to the right, and could swing either way for him to draw with either hand. It had a teal coloured handle and the guard was shaped like a templar shield with a snowflake etched into one side of the blade and a lightning bolt etched on the other side.

The woman was walking on his left hand side and was the shorter of the two, by a very small amount. She was slender and the skin that was on display was slightly pale but completely unmarked, leaving it incredibly smooth. She had long hair that hung down to the small of her back, and was tucked behind her ears, that was a lime green colour and her eyes shone with the glean of a hazelnut. She wore a knee length dress that was only a slightly darker green then her hair and her slender legs ended with simple sandals on her feet. Her Zanpakuto hung from her shoulder on a length of cord, similar to a handbag; it had a green handle with four petals, similar to those from a rose, as its guard.

The two of them walked a while longer until they came to a door with a different design on it in comparison to all the others they had passed through. It opened and they stepped into a rather large octagonal room. There was a long staircase leading down to a floor and all around the edges of the room sat people behind screens with a number on. The numbers went up to 40 and then there were 6 people sat in the centre, opposite the door, with plain white screens. The one in the centre raised a hand and pointed it at the two new arrivals.

"You are not…" he started

"Shh…" the woman interrupted, raising a finger to her dark green lips. "You have not been given permission to speak, old man."

The man slammed his hand on his desk as he spoke next "How dare you speak to us like that! I dema…!" but before he could finish what he was saying, the woman had disappeared and reappeared behind him with a small click of her sword. The screen the man was sat behind fell in half and then the mans head followed, his lifeless body slipping out his chair and down to the ground.

"Now then old men." The man said as he reached behind him and drew his sword with his right hand. "No one else utter a word or Vera here will have to kill some more of you." He said calmly and maybe a little bit reluctantly. "I have a message from someone who says you'll recognise his name." he reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a rolled piece of paper, and unfurled it with a flick of his hand.

_Central 46, my dear comrades that I despise so much._

_Hi there, at the end of this message I will reveal my name and I'm sure that will get a lovely reaction out of the lot of you that I will be sad that I've missed it. However, I am sure Riku here will describe it to me. So then, the reason that I am writing this letter to you; I am going to let you know that I have gathered a few select friends of mine and we are going to completely destroy Soul Society as you despicable group of people have made it. Unfortunately this will mean the death of a number of rather powerful and lovely people that I'd rather not kill but will have to. Riku and Vera coming here is actually the last step in the preparations I am making to make sure it all goes the way I want it to, and I'm surprised that none of it has been found out yet. If it had, there would have been no way for my friends to enter the Central 46 chambers that you like to reside in. I would tell you to look a lot closer to home but that would be redundant considering that you will all be dead within 10 minutes._

There was uproar from the crowd of old men as Riku recited what was written on the letter and he had to raise his voice to make it heard.

_Quieten down, quieten down you bunch of scraggly old Neanderthals. Anyway I though I'd let you know that it has been long deserved._

_So now I leave you and tell you my name so that you may panic and be very confused._

_Masuki Joushi._

_Tara now._

The uproar that had happened a minute ago was thrown into absolute silence when Riku said that name. They were stunned, never believing that that name would ever make a reappearance within Soul Society ever again.

"How can this be? A Joushi still alive? I refuse to believe it!" one of the old men shouted from the side.

"This person obviously only found the name and is using it to try and intimidate us!" another one shouted, which started a new flurry of shouting and cursing that neither Riku nor Vera tried to surprise, Riku simply looked up at Vera and nodded sadly.

"I would have liked for you to last a little longer but I suppose it is necessary that you no longer live. I would ask you to smile but that would be a little uncouth I think." He muttered to himself as Vera dashed around the octagonal room and decapitated each and every one of the 46 old men that were in there. When she had finished she appeared beside Riku and sheathed her sword.

"I see that you did it perfectly as always, Vera." Riku said as he turned and opened a Garganta to his right.

"Obviously, anything less than perfect is a terrible thing." She replied and followed him through the doorway, glancing behind her as it snapped shut on them.

x+x+x+x+x

It had been two whole days since Yajuu had shown Kuri his secret and had a bout with his Captain, Shunsui Kyouraku. Throughout these two days a number of rumours had turned up and it was starting to put pressure on the Gotei 13 and the decision making of the Central 46. There were rumours that said the whole of the 80th district, Zaraki, had been wiped out by a single person, rumours that someone had escaped from the Onmitsukido. A number of the lower ranking Shinigami had picked up on these and were started to get seriously worried about what might happen. However, none of these rumours surfaced within Soul Society today; for today was the military funeral of Rukia Kuchiki, who had been murdered by an unknown individual.

Yajuu was sitting on a low wall which resided on the outskirts of the 8th division barracks. He had his hands resting on the wall and his head was leant back, looking at the blue sky. He wasn't the only one that was not going to be attending the funeral, because so many of the high ranking Shinigami were required to go to a military funeral, many of the low ranking guys and girls were put onto guard duty; considering Soul Society couldn't be left unguarded no matter who died. Another reason why there was only a smattering of guards was the fact that Rukia Kuchiki was so well known and so well liked and many of the noble families would be at the funeral since she was a Kuchiki.

Yajuu had only ever met Rukia three times and two of those were only very brief, he had never really got to know her but he had liked her enough to be slightly sad that she was now dead. He knew that a lot of people would be a lot sadder then he was at the moment, especially Captain Kuchiki. He had been seen very rarely since he left the last emergency Captain's meeting. Any fleeting glances that anyone got of him would not last long and the rumour was he would spend most of his time in the room with the shrine to his dead wife, Hisana.

Kuri appeared behind Yajuu and laid a hand on his shoulder; she moved to the side and sat down next to him, her shoulder touching his. "You alright?" she asked

"Better then some of the people who are going to be at the funeral. I didn't know her to well after all." He replied, then turning his head to face Kuri. "What about you, I hear you're going up to the funeral."

"Yeah, I didn't know her too well either but I'm a close friend to Renji Abarai and he's sure to be down." She replied, looking towards the ground.

"I didn't know you knew him. When did you meet?" he asked, trying to act as aloof as he could.

"Oh a while back now. Anyway, I've got to go; the funeral starts in an hour and all Shinigami need to be in place 45 minutes beforehand." As she started to get up to leave, Yajuu gestured her to wait.

"45 minutes? That seems a bit steep, how come you have to be there so early?"

"Oh, yeah, well the procession will be started in the 78th district, where she came from, and will be going all the way to the bottom of Sokyoku hill to the cemetery there."

"Blimey, all the way from the 78th district? That's going to be one hell of a haul, who's carrying the coffin?"

"No-one, it is being drawn in a carriage. But I really need to go now so I'll see you afterwards, yeah?"

"Yeah, go on then, get where you need to be, I'll still be here when you return." He said and waved her off, watching as she walked away and disappeared around the corner.

x+x+x+x+x

Kuri turned the corner and once she was sure that Yajuu could no longer see her she stopped and put her back against the wall. She glanced around to make sure no one else was lurking about and then laid her hand on her Zanpakuto, slowing drawing it out; making sure to be as quiet as possible.

x+x+x+x+x

The mood was sombre all through Soul Society and the majority of Rukongai, as the Shinigami set up for its first full military funeral for a number of years. Because of the route that the procession would take, it was lined with Shinigami, who would keep the hordes away and make sure nothing untoward happens. The coffin itself was merely a show, because there was no body; but it was the same with all military funerals, Soul Society never had any bodies to bury.

The carriage was drawn by two horses with a rider each and would be at the front of the procession, it was topless and was a deep black shined like a mirror, the wheels inlayed with gold. The coffin that rode it was a brilliant white, so bright that most people couldn't look straight at it because of the sun that reflected of it. On the lid of the coffin, engraved in black, were the cross and three lines to indicate the 13th division and also the 13th division's symbol of a summer snowflake. At the base of the lid was the symbol of the Kuchiki household; the hexagon with two 'U' shaped connected to a pair of wings.

Flanking either side of the carriage were seated officers 4 – 10, 3 on either side, who would be the direct escort for the coffin and would place it into the grave when they reached Sokyoku cemetery. Standing behind the carriage was Joushiro Ukitake, the captain of the 13th division, who had a look of deep sadness on his face and a step behind him were the two third seats of the division, Kiyone Kotetsu and Sentaro Kotsubaki, who were stood on either side of him.

Behind them, in order of their ranks, were the rest of the seated officers that were part of the 13th division and behind them were the rest of the division stood in no particular order. There seemed to be no tears throughout the division, but no doubt it was simply because they were all out of tears as it had been a while since they had found out she was dead.

Behind the 13th division were members of the four noble houses of Soul Society, lead by the heads of the houses. At the front was the Kuchiki family, for obvious reasons, but it was lead by a very old looking man with Byakuya no where in sight. Behind the Kuchiki family was the Shihion family, lead by the 22nd head and Captain of the 2nd division; Yourichi Shihion. In 3rd place was the recently reinstated Shiba family and was lead by Kukaku Shiba, who was now the 18th official head of the family. Finally, coming up the rear of the noble families were three very old looking people, one male and two females. This was the Hitotsu family, a noble family who very rarely left their house and village; although it seemed a death of a Kuchiki was important enough for at least someone to appear. Not much was known about the Hitotsu family but it was known that the old man was the 28th head of the family and his name was Gorai Hitotsu and he had been leading the family for over 250 years. The heads of the houses were all notably dressed in mourning clothes, consisting of a number of layers and all of dark colours with the crest of their house on their backs.

Behind the noble families were the remaining Captains of the Gotei 13, stood in a arrow formation with Yamamoto stood at the head and moving back in number order; leaving out the 2nd division because she was leading her family, the 5th division who was still in hospital, the 6th division for unknown reasons, 11th division for an unknown reason; he had recovered from his injuries the day before, and the 13th division who was directly behind the carriage. On the inside of the arrowhead were the Vice-Captains, stood next to their respective captains.

Behind the Captains were a number of seated Shinigami who had managed to acquire a place within the parade by applying via their Captains in the days before. They were the last in line, but as the parade would start moving the Shinigami cordon along the sides would allow the crowds to fall in behind and follow it to the edge of Sereitei. An order of Central 46 had banned entry to Sereitei to all residents of Rukongai and this sentiment was echoed through the ranks of the Gotei 13, it would be too dangerous to let them in.

Ukitake glanced around and noted that everyone in position, he took one last look behind him and then nodded to the riders who would be drawing the carriage. They nodded back and the procession began its long trek to Sokyoku cemetery. The horses started moving and their hooves were muted by the dusted ground, the carriage moved silently as it was pulled along. It was a staggered start as people realised that it had started but once the final people started moving they managed to get into pace of the slow march.

Most of the watchers were there because they had known Rukia a long time ago or had been told about her by the older members of the district; however they were a few troublemakers in the crowd who shouted out obscenities at the passing parade but were kept from interfering by the Shinigami at the edges. The members of the procession felt the words but ignored them; they knew that to start anything here would be a really dumb thing to do.

It took about an hour and a half for the procession to hit the edge of Sereitei and there was a small pause as the Shinigami guard cordoned off the end of the parade to make sure that no one who wasn't meant to gained entrance to Sereitei. There were shouts of anger and protest as they were held back and Ukitake gazed back sadly at them. He would have liked at least the ones who had known Rukia to be able to see them bury her but he knew that when Central 46 made a decision it was impossible for anyone but them to change it.

The walk through Sereitei was a lot more peaceful and a lot more deserted, seeing as the majority of the Gotei 13 was in the parade itself. However, there was still enough Shinigami who weren't in the parade or on guard to make some sort of crowd. Most Shinigami had met Rukia but every single one had heard of her. If not simply because she was a member of the Kuchiki household.

As the parade passed near the Kuchiki household a lone figure could be seen standing on the tallest tower within the grounds. His haori blew in the wind, along with his silk scarf and wind. Byakuya could not bring himself to attend the funeral but he knew that he had to at least see it going past, which as soon as it had he disappeared into his household once more.

x+x+x+x+x

Yajuu was still sat on his wall, as the parade passed through Sereitei. He didn't actually see or hear it but he could feel the rumble of the streets as the large number of people in the procession followed the carriage through the streets. A slight breeze had picked up and his colourful hair was moving slightly as it was touched by it. He sighed deeply as the rumbling stopped and he knew that the procession had passed. He knew that he had volunteered for guard duty but he was starting to get bored and regret his eagerness. He glanced about and when he was sure that no one was around he got up and dusted himself off.

"I don't think anyone will mind if I go catch a bit of the funeral at the Sokyoku cemetery." He muttered to himself as he started off in the direction of the massive mound of earth that could be seen from any point in Sereitei and Soul Society. As he turned the corner he bumped into someone and stepped back holding his nose. He looked up and realised had bumped into Zaraki Kenpachi. He let go of his nose and bowed slightly in respect, and as he did so he saw that Zaraki's Vice-Captain was stood on the ground next to him. _How strange, I thought she always rode on his back._

"Captain Kenpachi! You've recovered from your injuries then? I thought all the Captains were required to be part of the funeral procession?" he asked

The look of coldness that he received from Zaraki was so intense that he actually had to take a step back. Zaraki then pushed past him and walked away, Yachiru walking slightly behind him.

"That was weird; I wonder what was up with him." Yajuu said as he adjusted the swords on his belt and started to walk towards Sokyoku.

Yajuu flitted through the streets and he arrived at Sokyoku cemetery just as Rukia's coffin was being lowered into the grave. A massive headstone of what looked like marble stood and was engraved with her name and a short set of words that Yajuu couldn't quite read from where he was standing. He could see that Yamamoto was saying something but once again he was to far away for him to hear it properly. The coffin disappeared into the ground and then I was suddenly buried with dirt that had come out of nowhere. Yajuu guessed that there was a Kido Corps Shinigami hanging around nearby and had transferred the dirt using Kido.

Yamamoto finished talking and gestured with a nod with his head to disperse the crowds. The Vice-Captains stepped away from their captains and started ushering the remaining Shinigami's out of the cemetery, leaving the Nobles to make their own ways. As Yajuu watched the dispersal, he was about to walk away when he noticed an Onmitsukido member appear beside Yamamoto and say something into his ear that caused a look of surprise to appear on the wrinkled face. Yajuu watched with interest as Yamamoto called the Captains towards him and said something to them and then disappeared with his superior shunpo. The other Captains followed suit and the cemetery was suddenly completely empty.

Yajuu turned around to leave and bumped straight into his Captain. "Captain Kyouraku!" he exclaimed and bowed slightly to him. "I was just heading back to my post now."

"No problem Kikuishi-Kun, there is nothing wrong with you giving you respect to a fallen Shinigami." He replied, all signs of his normal playfulness gone. "I'm afraid something has come up that is quite disturbing and I need you to inform Freya-Chan to keep an eye on the office."

"Of course Captain, I will inform her right away."

"Thank you." He said before disappearing with shunpo. Yajuu ran off in the direction of the 8th division barracks to give the 8th divisions 3rd seat the message.

x+x+x+x+x

Yamamoto was once again sitting in the high backed chair that was at the head of the Captains meeting room. The Onmitsukido member that had talked to him had given him some disturbing news that required and emergency Captains meeting. He had told the other Captains to inform their Vice-Captains and then report back to him as soon as possible. He had sent he Onmitsukido member to find Zaraki and attempt to get a response out of Byakuya but did not expect much on the latter attempt.

The door swung open and the Captains entered into the room, they were lead by Kyouraku and they all took their positions on either side of the room. Yamamoto looked around and noticed that there was no Zaraki and no Byakuya, although the former suddenly swept into the room and took up his place.

"Captain Kenpachi, why were you not at the funeral." Yamamoto asked him sternly.

"I was training, so that next time I bump into that bozo I'll rip him to shreds." Zaraki said with a growl.

Yamamoto decided not to respond as he knew what Zaraki was like when he lost in a fight. He glanced around and also realised that the 2nd division captain was missing. "Where is Captain Shihion?" he asked but before anyone could answer she entered through the massive doors while shrugging on her Captain's Haori.

"Sorry, Captain-Commander, those robes were a bitch to get off." She said roughly before also taking her place in the line of Captains.

Yamamoto banged his stick against the floor to indicate the start of the meeting but before he could say anything there was a loud clap as someone slapped their hands together and then the room filled with a strange reiatsu. One the Zaraki and Urahara reacted to with wide open eyes, the formers in excitement rather then surprise.

"Hi~ya!" a voice said and the silver haired spirit stepped out of the shadows.

_A/N: Dum dum du~m! Anyway, hoped you enjoyed the chapter and please read and review. Props go to Bleachfan180 (Oh if you have an account throw us a PM, if not then bummer.) for Vera, and props also Randomguy24 who gave me Riku. Hope I got your characters right but any problems give us a shout (goes to all you guys and gals that had a character.)_

**Next Time:**

**Yamamoto: "How did you get in here?"**

**Masuki: "Say hello to my friends here."**

**Byakuya: "YYOOUUUU!"**

**Chapter 6: The Warning.**


	7. Chapter 6: The Warning

_A/N: Next chapter, Woot! Anyways, Bleachfan180, it looks like you didn't see my message and there is no username on FF in that name so I'll presume for the moment that you haven't got one. It just means that I'll be changing your character slightly without consulting you…because I can't! Anyways, read on you lovely people!_

**Chapter 6 – The Warning**

The realm of Hueco Mundo was as empty as ever, with no hint of a breeze and the everlasting night darkening the desert world. Masuki was stood far away from the palace, formerly known as Las Noches, near a small gathering of the quartz like trees. He stood completely still and had his eyes closed as if focusing on something that he couldn't quite catch. He opened his eyes slowly and shot his cuff to reveal the watch he wore on his right wrist, he glanced at the face and then looked up again. He looked into the open desert but his eyes were focused on something much closer, a black doorway had begun to tear itself into the air.

As the door fully formed it showed as the same height as a standard door but was about 4 times as wide and as Masuki gazed into the swirling blackness, a number of white shapes were moving their way towards the door. A couple of minutes of silent waiting by Masuki and a small boy stepped out of the Garganta and stepped over to Masuki before turning around.

"I should've guessed you'd be here waiting for us Masuki." Nakashima said as he watched the flow of former prisoners step out of the doorway and gaze around confused and disorientated.

"Of course, I'd like to actually see my soldiers before I send them into battle." Masuki said with a small grin. There were about 50 people dressed in the prisoners white and as Sly stepped out of the doorway behind them it snapped shut and left them in the middle of nowhere and far from the palace. Sly made his way around the group and eventually met up with Masuki and Nakashima, giving the former a strange look.

"Masuki, I never thought you'd show up in person. What's the deal?" Sly asked

"Oh I'm sorry am I not allowed to be somewhere without some ulterior motive?" Masuki said with a small laugh.

"Hey, I only meant that we haven't seen your face for like 70 years. Nice hair by the way."

Masuki glanced across to Sly with only his eyes and Sly took a step back with his hands held up. "No worries, Sly, thank you for the compliment."

As the conversation went on the Shinigami started to get restless and the man who seemed to be the leader, his half head of red hair in bright contrast to the white surroundings, stepped forward and cleared his throat.

"Sorry to interrupt but where the hell are we?" he asked, looking at Masuki with distrust.

"Welcome, previous Shinigami, to Hueco Mundo…" a lot of surprised looks appeared on faces and a couple of them even gasped "…the hollow world. Do not worry, if you are within 400 meters of me or 100 meters of anyone of my friends no hollow will attack you." Masuki said and then raised his fingers to his lips and blew a long shrill whistle.

As the whistle echoed around the empty world, the earth seemed to shake and the sand to the group's right split apart and revealed a hard white exterior of something massive lurking below the ground. Many of the prisoners stepped back with wide eyes but a few curious ones stepped forward.

"Nothing to be afraid of my friends, it is simply our ride, so please step aboard and we will arrive in no time." Masuki said and gestured towards the white plate. He then turned to Sly and Nakashima and nodded to them. "You guys zip off ahead, apart from Vera and Riku; the others are all in the meeting room. Go there and then when I appear we'll get things started." Nakashima and Sly nodded and the disappeared with only a movement of the sand to tell they had been there at all.

Most of the prisoners were now on the massive hollow, but the red head had stayed where he was and was now staring at Masuki. "If you keep staring at me like that, I'll start to blush." He said and turned to face the leader of the prisoners.

"Sorry but there is something I must do before I go anywhere with you." He muttered before shooting forward with speed. Masuki didn't react until the last second when he raised his hand and blocked the fist with a single finger and his right hand dropped to his sword. A brief pause and then multiple slashes appeared on the red heads arm and he held it up for a second more before dropping to his side and clutching his shoulder.

"I just had to check you were up to scratch. I was certain you were, but I thought a physical check would help."

"No worries…" Masuki said and paused. "What's your name?"

The red head paused and then answered quietly "We have all forgotten our original names; it was a long time that we spent in that prison."

"Brilliant, then I shall give you your name." Masuki said with a clap of his hand "You shall now be called Yama Shinku and the rest of them can name themselves while I go and talk to my friends." Yama nodded and then started to move towards the others. "One sec Yama, give me your arm." Yama looked confused but held his arm out anyway and Masuki gripped his wrist. A couple of seconds later a blue, green glow appeared around his arm and the wounds in his arm healed nearly instantly. "Off you go then."

Masuki walked to the others and raised his voice for them to hear "Now then, when you arrive at the palace, if you could enter the door in front of you and you'll find a lovely meal behind it. Gorge yourselves and I'll come and talk to you later." With that he also disappeared with a small movement of sand the only thing to tell he had been there a second before.

Yama looked confused but nonetheless stepped onto the transport and as soon as he did so it started moving. It lurched forward and started to increase its speed and soon the prisoners had to lie on the ground to stop themselves being thrown off.

x+x+x+x+x

Masuki appeared within the walls of the massive palace and walked quickly to a set of closed doors towering over him. He didn't slow as he approached the door and simply increased his reiatsu, which knocked the doors open, and stepped into the large room. It was an odd room to lie within the palace because of the way it had been built. Masuki had custom built the room after they had liberated it from its previous owner, the so called king of Hueco Mundo, Barragan Luisenbarn. It had a single chair at the head of the room and wooden boards as its floor, each side of the room was hidden in shadow and Masuki saw that the majority of his team was already there. He paused in the centre of the room and glanced around before glancing at his watch. He looked up to see two more people enter through a door in the far corner of the room and slink into the shadows.

"Good you have all arrived; it is time that the final stage of preparations starts in our war. But for this to work you will have to reveal yourselves to your allies." Masuki said calmly.

"Ah" one of shadows sighed "I wondered why you revealed yourself to us as we entered this world. Who is to go first then?"

"Nakashima, show yourself." Masuki commanded and the small boy looking man stepped out of the shadows and into he light. A small laugh came from one of the corners and Nakashima looked across with annoyance.

"You find something wrong, Rokurou." Nakashima said.

"Of course not, shorty. Just wasn't expecting you to look like some school kid." Rokurou said, between bits of a turkey baguette, as he stepped out of the shadow and revealed himself as the towering man he was.

Nakashima looked with slight anger as Rokurou commented on his height but didn't say anything as Masuki had his eyes on both of them.

"Vera, you next."

"If I must." Vera said as she stepped forward into the light, which shone off of her flawless skin and Rokurou couldn't help but glance down towards her and his permanent smile widened slightly at the view he got.

"I can already guess how this party is starting so I know I'm next." Tomoyo said as she skipped out of the darkness and waved in all directions. "Hi guys!"

"So then it's me next." Riku said as he stepped out and then the others cottoned on and followed the order that they had done when they had given their findings on the Gotei 13. Taiki stepped out next and didn't say anything, only glaring angrily over at Rokurou who had crouched down and was munching on his sandwich. Next and finally was Sly as he stepped out and casually glanced around at everyone with curiosity in his eyes.

"So then Masuki, why are we revealing ourselves to the others?" Sly asked and looked back at Masuki, everyone else following suit.

"The reason is, Sly, that it will stop you guys beating each other up when we invade Soul Society."

"So we're actually going to do it?" Taiki growled, still throwing glances at Rokurou who was ignoring him.

"Of course, I will tell you the plan in due course but first we're going to have a meeting with the Captains of the Gotei 13. I'll talk to them first and then I'll summon you guys to throw a bit of intimidation around."

"We're going to infiltrate a Captains meeting?" Nakashima asked with surprise "I didn't know we were going to do that."

"Sort of, but I've created a nifty little Kido that'll get us there."

"So what are we waiting for?" Rokurou asked as he swallowed loudly.

Masuki looked at his watch and then placed his palms together. "Nothing anymore." He said as he increased his reiatsu and chanted something under his breath. "Bakudo, Kokuu Chouyaku!" as he said this a pale orange box appeared around Masuki and around each of the others as they stood in certain positions. "Remember, you won't actually appear until I call you and you are to say nothing, you are simply to stare at some people before I send you away again." The others nodded and Masuki closed his eyes, visualising the Captain's room he had been in so many times before.

x+x+x+x+x

He appeared to the side of the Captains meeting and watched as Yourichi Shihion made her way to the place she was designated while still dressing herself. When she was in position, Yamamoto banged his stick against the ground but as he was about to speak, Masuki clapped his hands loudly and stepped out of the shadow. As he did so the orange box surrounding him disappeared and some of his reiatsu escaped into the room.

"Hi~ya!" he said in a rather high pitched voice. "Ah the Captains of the Gotei 13, any of you know who I am?" he asked politely.

None of them answered but it was clear they were ready to react to anything Masuki might try. Zaraki didn't wait for anything and ginned madly as he drew his sword and rushed Masuki. Masuki didn't react as Zaraki swung his blade down and just before the blade struck, Kyouraku had appeared and grabbed Zaraki's wrist.

"Don't waste your energy Captain Kenpachi, he's not really here."

"What!" Zaraki said as he glared daggers at Kyouraku.

"It is true what Shunsui Kyouraku says, Zaraki Kenpachi." Masuki said and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not really here; this is a projection of me via a cool Kido I created recently."

At this Urahara spoke up. "You created a new Kido?" he forgot where he was for a moment and sounded eager to hear the answer before realising and looking guiltily at Yamamoto, but the latter gave no sign that he was against the question.

"Yeah, I created a new Kido. What of it?" Masuki asked with another shrug "You didn't think I'd actually jump into a Captain's meeting and get assaulted by all thirt…" he paused as he glanced around and noticed Shinji was mission "I correct myself, it looks like Shinji Hirako has not yet recovered from my attack. You don't think I'd try to fight 12 Captains at once. I know and you know that I'm strong but not that strong." He said with a chuckle.

"How did you get in here?" Yamamoto growled at Masuki.

"Didn't you hear what was just said?"

"A homemade Kido would crumble against the barrier around Sereitei."

"Not a homemade Kido of level…oh I don't know, 412." As he said this, all the Captains looked surprised and Urahara nearly fell over in shock. "Kidding, kidding." Masuki laughed before becoming serious again. "It's not about power levels, it's all about knowing where to cast your Kido." Masuki suddenly looked around and realised that many of the Captains had no idea who he was. "Oh bugger." He said, pointed at himself. "Did I turn up too early?"

He walked through Zaraki, who growled and spun around to keep his eyes on his prey. "Sorry, have you told them all about the rumours that are no doubt running around Soul Society at the moment?" He looked at Yamamoto's face for a second before continuing. "Bummer, do you want to carry on with your meeting or do you want me to go ahead and tell them?" he looked at Yamamoto's face and stepped back slowly, hands raised. "I'll tell them then." And he turned around to face the rest of the Captains.

"The rumours you have heard about the destruction of the 80th district known as Zaraki, the killing of a large amount of Onmitsukido and the escape of the prisoners in the Maggots nest and the death of the members of Central 46…" he paused as he watched the reaction to the last on his list "You obviously didn't know about that yet, but anyway, all of these acts are true and were committed by friends of mine." He looked around and then waved his hand randomly. "Say hello to my friends here."

More pale orange boxes filled the room and suddenly, all of them were in the same room as the captains. The monster that was Taiki appeared behind the Captains of the 3rd and 7th divisions, Rose and Love respectively; being as wide as the two of them and towering over the taller of the two, Rose, by a significant amount.

The curious Sly appeared beside the Captain of the 9th division, Kensei, and looked across at him, Kensei replied with an angry glare of his own. The smallish Tomoyo appeared in between Yourichi and Unohana, the former fixing her gaze on the new arrival and the latter glancing at her and then returning her gaze to Masuki. The pretty Vera appeared behind Toshiro and thanks to his small stature; he was overshadowed by her completely. The school boy-like Nakashima appeared beside a bewildered Urahara and a sombre Riku appeared beside Ukitake.

The final one to appear was Rokurou and as he materialised behind Zaraki and Kyouraku, he bent over and whispered something in Zaraki's ear. Zaraki, spun round and sliced his sword harmlessly through the image of Rokurou, who stood up to his towering height and smiled his trademark grin.

"As you can see I have many friends, and these are not all of them. I also have the escaped Maggots Nest prisoners as well as some rather powerful Hollows I've come across roaming the lands." None of the Captains talked as Masuki spoke, either because of their new shadows or because they were waiting for Yamamoto to react.

"Now then, we have initiated this war and we plan to follow it through to the end." Masuki said menacingly and he spun around and pointed his finger at Yamamoto. "You have 12 weeks before we invade Soul Society and eradicate it from history. Prepare yourselves well, Gotei 13." He said before snapping his fingers and the Captains watched as the others disappeared but as Masuki started to disappear, he suddenly appeared again and the orange box flitted out. "That can't be good." He said as Zaraki laughed out loud and lunged at him.

Masuki dodges his head back, and Zaraki's blade passed within an inch of his nose and before Zaraki could swing again, Masuki jumped over his head and moved towards the door. As he was about to disappear, Yourichi appeared in front of him.

"Don't think you'll be able to outrun me." She said as Masuki moved to doge past her. Although Masuki had used Shunpo, the level he was using was no match for Yourichi and he had to jump away as she swung a fist at his face. As he jumped back he ducked as Love's blade passed over his head. What followed next looked like a mix of martial arts movements and a dance as Masuki ducked, weaved and jumped to dodge the incoming blades of 10 Captains, Yamamoto and Unohana staying put. He twisted and turned, ducked and weaved and he managed to make his way to the door only to be punched in the face by Kensei and simultaneously being kicked in the stomach by Yourichi. He was forced backwards and the doors were knocked wide by the force of the blows, but Masuki managed to stay on his feet.

As the group exited the meeting room, they could suddenly hear the ringing of bells and realised that the invasion alarm was going off. A clatter of Shinigami appeared from around the corner and started to move towards Masuki to surround him.

"No-one goes near him!" Kyouraku commanded as he swung at Masuki, only to feel his blade pass through thin air as Masuki had dodged backwards. Masuki stopped temporarily and the Captains who were acting took the opportunity to surround him with the use of shunpo. Zaraki had looked at the group and was now leaning against a wall with his arms crossed, when Love looked at him questioningly, he replied with a grunt. "I don't fight enemies in a group, I fight alone!" Love shook his head in disapproval but turned back to Masuki.

Masuki looked around and then straightened up as Yamamoto walked slowly over and joined the circle of Captains. "Look what you did to my coat!" Masuki said and gestured towards his overcoat which was snow shredded to pieces but he had no marks on his body. He took the coat off and threw it to the ground "Now I'm going to have to go and buy a new one."

"Enough with your act, Insolent child, you are going to be escorted to a prison cell and then you will answer all questions I have for you." Yamamoto said fiercely.

"Ah ah a~h…" Masuki said, wagging his finger "Interrogation only works when you have someone captured."

"You really think you are going to escape here?" Rose asked him.

Masuki ignored the question but instead turned in a slow circle. "Ok then, which one of you beautiful Captains was the one who managed to pull my physical body here through my own Kido?"

"You fool; none of us were the one who bought you here." Yourichi called

Masuki looked confused and then looked up to the roof of the meeting room where he saw a rather large pink haired man standing with his hands in a Kido sign. "So it was you, who the hell are you?" he asked.

"You didn't complete your research completely it seems. How forgetful of you." Urahara said disapprovingly as if Masuki was a fellow scientist.

Hachigen walked to the edge and called down to the group of Captains; he was sweating and breathing heavily as he spoke. "I am sorry everyone but I was only able to recall this man, to do the others would have taken up to much energy."

"Do not worry Hachigen, just this man was enough; he seems to be the leader of the group." Hachigen nodded, but kept his hands held together and his fingers crossed over each other.

"Ahh, so it is you who is stopping me from making my true escape. I better correct that." Masuki said and suddenly disappeared. Yourichi and Kyouraku reacted the fasted and gave chase but weren't fast enough to stop Masuki from clobbering Hachigen on the side of the head and sending him tumbling to the ground. Masuki managed to dodge Yourichi's kick and moved fast enough to avoid being cut by Kyouraku but his shirt split across the front. Masuki then jumped away from the two Captains and placed his hands together, only to find himself still there.

"Ok, then there is someone else as skilled as the pink haired one around here somewhere." The other captains were starting towards him but he raced away with Shunpo and although Yourichi and Kyouraku kept up with him for a second or two, he soon disappeared and they both stopped.

"Fast little bugger!" Yourichi said and then they both returned to Yamamoto.

Masuki ran for a minute or two and when he stopped, it was on the wall of a rather expensive looking mansion. It was surrounded by large walls, one of which Masuki was crouched on, and surrounded by guards. Masuki dropped into the grounds before the guards saw him and wandered around the traditional garden slowly. He raised his hand to his chin as he looked at a large doorway in front of him and nearly missed the heart wrenching scream of a full grown man.

"YYOOOOUUU!" the man roared and as Masuki turned around he felt a blade pierce his shoulder and push him back a few steps. He looked into the eyes of a grief driven madness and watched Byakuya cry silently. He grabbed Byakuya's Zanpakuto with his right hand and pulled it deeper into his body, so that the guard was touching his skin, then before Byakuya could react he smashed his head forward and crashed it into the bridge of Byakuya's nose. The crazed captain reared back and let go of his sword as he reeled back from the devastating blow. Masuki then pulled the blade out of his shoulder and whipped it trough the air towards Byakuya.

Byakuya didn't react in time and the blade pierced his side and pushed him back into the wall; his own blade trapping him against it. He was such a mess that he simply slopped against the blade and let his tears fall.

"Byakuya Kuchiki, this is not like you at all. Being all emotional and roaring at your enemies, that sounds a whole lot like Kenpachi; and you're not like him are you?" Masuki asked casually but received no reply.

"Tut, tut, tut, if you stay like this not only will you be removed from my list but you will not be able to protect Soul Society and you will die. Do you want that?" Masuki asked and then seemed to realise he was bleeding. He reached his left hand under his shirt and placed it over the wound, healing it with his own reiatsu.

"You have taken everything away from me." Byakuya muttered and Masuki had to lean in to hear it properly.

"Maybe so, maybe so, but pull yourself together and you can fight me properly in 12 weeks." At the confused look on Byakuya's face Masuki repeated what he said in the Captains meeting. "You see, Soul Society will come to an end in 12 weeks, so you might as well avenge your Rukia before I kill you." Then he paused in thought. "Well, you can try and avenge her and then I will send you to her."

Byakuya looked up at Masuki with death in his eyes but said nothing.

"Anyway, Byakuya, I'm going to go ahead and use your Senkaimon to get back to the real world and make my escape. I hope you don't have a problem with that?" Masuki asked as he moved towards the Kuchiki family Senkaimon.

"It won't work; you need the blood of a Kuchiki for that gate to work." Byakuya said

"I'm sure I'm close enough." Masuki said and rested his palm on the doorway, causing it to light up brightly. "See, not a problem."

Byakuya looked on confused as Masuki passed through the gate that only his own flesh and blood should be able to use. Masuki's head then reappeared and looked directly into Byakuya's eyes. "Sort yourself out before I come back, I wouldn't one of my friends killing you before you attempt your revenge." And then he disappeared again, and the door closed behind him with a small thump.

Byakuya stared at that door for a long time, and didn't stop until he was discovered by one of his guards who rushed to his aid and called the 4th division and Unohana prised him from the wall and laid him gently on the ground. On her face was kindness and Byakuya finally managed to drift off to sleep with her close to him.

x+x+x+x+x

Masuki stepped out of the floating paper door and looked around to see where he was. He glanced down at the buildings and instantly recognised where he was; the town where he killed Rukia, Karakura town.

"I should have known the gate would be located here, no doubt he has scoured the land for a clue about Rukia's death. Probably how he recognised my reiatsu, I have a habit of leaving some of it hanging around all the bloody time." He said before tapping the air beside him and opening the doorway to Hueco Mundo; a Garganta. It opened directly into the pseudo-captains room and he saw the others look at him strangely as he stepped through and the door closed behind him.

"What the hell happened to you!" Taiki demanded as Masuki appeared. "You said we wouldn't actually be there, but that's not really important; we have to wait 12 bloody weeks before we smash them!"

"Taiki!" Masuki said sternly and then continued as Taiki calmed himself. "There was some Shinigami there who were extremely potent at Kido is all. I wasn't expecting it but I'm back now. The 12 weeks is for us to train and for me to train all the newbie's we have now. I want them to last more then 3 seconds against their former comrades.

At this point Sly stepped forward and addressed Masuki. "12 weeks isn't enough time for them to get enough power to last long enough."

"It is when you train with me." Masuki said and then waved his hand to indicate that the conversation was over. "Now, you have 12 weeks to train, sleep, eat or do whatever you want. On the day before we invade I will reveal exactly what we are going to do to Soul Society."

_A/N: Right, I'll say this first of all: I know that Byakuya is major Off Character but the whole point is that he's meant to be distraught about Rukia being killed off and he wasn't able to keep his promise to Hisana. Yeah, He'll return to normal later on. This chapter was pretty difficult to write for me, all those characters in the same place was hard to do so I'm sorry if it didn't quite work out or it is confusing. I think I've credited everyone's characters in previous chapters but Ill do it here just to make sure!_

_Taiki Kuroda –' Oggytheogre321', Sly Hitori – 'Shadowjohn101', Riku Tomoshibi – 'Randomguy24', Suzaku Tomoyo – 'Tateno Atsukino', Vera Hanafusa – The elusive 'Bleachfan180', Rokurou – 'Newtilator' and Nakashima Todayoshi – 'YellowChris'. Thanks to all you guys for your characters and I hope I portrayed them right in the chapters._

_Also for all you action lovers, there is one more chapter of pre-war and then the fights will begin and I have some big plans which you should hopefully find uber! Please Read & Review!_

**Next Time:**

_**Masuki: These walls are made of Seiyaishi.**_

_**Yajuu: 12 weeks, I must get stronger.**_

_**Byakuya: I am sorry Hisana.**_

_**Chapter 7: Training!**_


	8. Chapter 7: Training

_A/N: So then, the last Pre-War chapter and the end of the Pre-War arc…makes sense right! Anywho, read on and enjoy this chapter and wait in anticipation for awesomeness to follow in coming chapters. _

**Chapter 7 – Training!**

Masuki casually strolled down the corridor, he was still jacketless and wearing the shirt with a slice cut out of it by Kyouraku; he'd forgotten he hadn't changed yet. The tie he had been wearing had also been cut in half but he had removed that as he left the meeting with the others. He reached a large door and pushed it open to reveal the former prisoners finishing off the large meal he had prepared for them. He stepped into the room and although a couple of them glanced in his direction, none of them stopped eating. Masuki let the door close behind him and then leant back against it, crossing his arms over his chest.

The room was large, much bigger then the pseudo-captains room Masuki had created down the hall, and looked endlessly high. As all the rooms in the palace it was made of the same white stone and half pillars stuck out of the walls at varying points down the side. Torch brackets lit up the room from these pillars and a large chandelier hung above the centre of the room. A table, with all the food on, ran nearly the entire length of the room and although there were just over 100 hundred of them, the former prisoners hardly filled up the table at all.

Also along the edges of the room were a number of figures, sizing from tiny to massive, covered by brown cloth to hide their faces and body. These were just some of the hollows that Masuki had managed to recruit to his cause of destroying Soul Society completely. Masuki was sure that he could have probably got pretty much all of the hollows to give him a hand but he only recruited the ones he could control without killing them. At the moment, the hollows were acting as servants; even though that Masuki had no doubt that they could eradicate the prisoners without much effort.

It was 5 minutes before Yama made his way over to Masuki and paused before speaking. "So what now, we are here and we are ready to help you fight against Soul Society but at the moment the majority of us would be slaughtered within seconds."

Masuki smiled "That's why I have postponed the invasion for 12 weeks. In those 12 weeks you will all personally be trained by me and a little something extra. Is everyone finished?"

"Yes, thank you for the meal."

"You're no use to me starving now." Masuki said and then waved his hand, the hollows moved forward and moved the people away from the table and then it disappeared into the ground with some sort of mechanism. Now Masuki and the group were stood in a massive room that they would train in. He waved his hand again and the hollows all left out of side doors that they locked behind them.

"Now then people, if you would make your way over to that corner…" he gestured to the corner to his right. "…and in the room there you will find a large number of Asauchi, take one and then return to this room."

He paused as the group moved into the room, grabbed a sword and then came back into the room, standing in front of Masuki. Some of them simply held the swords loosely, others drew it a swung it around to test it, some of them had wicked smiles on their faces to have their hands on a blade again.

"Those nameless Zanpakuto are now yours until, and if, you manage to communicate with your spirits." He paused again. "Some of you may have noticed that your normally diminishing Reiatsu has been increasing as you left the Maggot's Nest and even more so the moment you entered this room." Some nodded and others had a look of surprise on their faces as they suddenly noticed the difference. "One reason for this is that the Maggot's Nest is surrounded by the ever irritating Sekkiseki stone and was sucking your powers away from you so you couldn't cause any problems." Again there was a scattering of nods as Masuki continued. "The reason it increased as you entered this room is because of the stone this room is made of. These walls are made of Seiyaishi. Seiyaishi stone is pretty much the opposite of Sekkiseki stone in the fact that instead of sucking away your Reiatsu it will restore and magnify it. Any increase you receive will stay with you after you leave the room."

There were a couple of satisfied nods and Masuki made his way to the centre of the room, motioning for the people to follow him. "Right, first of all I'm going to test you innate abilities and Reiryoku levels with a basic sparring. So everyone form a circle around me."

Although there was large amount of people, the room was still large enough that they could form a shoulder to shoulder circle with Masuki in the centre. "Right now, everyone draw your swords and throw the scabbards behind you." Masuki used the same tone he did with the others, the soft yet commanding one, and they all listened; throwing their scabbards behind them and a few of them moved into guard positions while others simply held it loosely by their sides.

Masuki turned a full circle to look at the entire group and then nodded to himself, as he did so he looked down a seemed to notice the gash in his shirt. He frowned and then used a single hand to rip the fabric from his body. The white shirt ripped easily and Masuki threw it to the floor, leaving himself bare-chested. He rolled his shoulders and stretched out his arms, showing off the perfectly honed muscles on his chest and arms.

"Right then, I'm ready, whenever you are, start attacking. You can all attack at the same time, in twos and threes or on your own; just as soon as you're prepared to fight. But guys…don't take too long or I'll bring the fight to you. You were all Shinigami before and were taught the basics of the four skills and I'm sure a number of you actually made it to be a full fledged Shinigami. So I expect at least a little bit of a fight."

He breathed in deeply and then slowly exhaled, letting his body calm and his heartbeat slow. He closed his eyes and repeated it once more before opening his eyes and letting his hands drop to his side. "Come." He said and the fight started.

Nearly half of the group all moved forward to attack, not including Yama, and charged Masuki. They all ran forwards with their swords raised high and attack with wild swings and sharp thrusts. Masuki didn't react and received all the attacks, the blades simply pushing against his skin but not drawing blood. There was a number of surprised look but also looks of resignation.

"Did you forget the most basic principle of fighting as a Shinigami?" he asked as the attacks all drew back a couple of steps, swords in the guard position. "If you don't pour your reiatsu into your Zanpakuto then you ain't gonna cut butter, let alone a high powered Shinigami. The idea of the training I'm going to put you through will, at minimum, make you the level of a 20th seat in a squad. However, I'm sure there are a few of you who are stronger then that. So, again!" he commanded and began the real sparring.

As the pseudo-Shinigami attacked him, he dodged a swerved, reminiscent of when he fought the captains, and as he passed by people he would give advice on how to use their swords properly. After 20 minutes of this sparring, everyone was now in the middle of the room, fighting against Masuki. All except for Yama Shinku, who had sat down and crossed his legs, laying his sword across his lap and meditating. He was breathing slowly and the only movement his body was making was the rising and falling of his chest. He'd been sat like that since the start of the fight and hadn't moved at all while it raged on. He suddenly snapped open his eyes and lifted himself to his feet; he held his sword out in front of him and focused his reiatsu into his sword.

The Asauchi's that the ex-prisoners were using were all currently exactly the same, they had standard red cord wrapped handles and the guard was a bronze coloured circle. As Yama's reiatsu increased, his sword started to change slightly the longer he held it. The red on the handle changed shade and became a dark orange and the guard distorted and became an octagon with the tops squared in to make it an 'H' shape. The blade lengthened slightly and became more curved making it more of a Tachi then a Katana.

He held the blade slanting towards the floor and his left hand was held above the base of the blade. "Wreak Havoc on the Earth…" he paused as he sucked in a breath. "Kazanshutsu!" His reiatsu spread around the room and stopped the other ex-prisoners in their tracks as they realised he had managed to release his sword in such a short time.

Yama's sword had now disappeared and had been replaced by some sort of armour that covered both of Yama's arms completely. The armour consisted of black plates that moved up his arms and at his shoulders were large funnels like the chimneys on a steam ship. On each plate down his arm there was also a circular hole that disappeared into darkness. At the fist end of the armour, there were two nozzles shaped like the mouth of a volcano. Both the chimneys and the nozzles had black smoke emitting from them.

Masuki smiled and brushed his hair out of his hair as he watched Yama powering up.

"Everyone, I'd get out of the way" Yama said with his eyes wide as he drew back his right hand and a bright orange glow emitted from the right hand chimney. "Kasairyuu!" he shouted and threw his fist forward with a punching motion. As he did so a column of lava and fire erupted from his fist and shot directly towards Masuki as the other ex-prisoners dived out of the way of the devastating attack.

Masuki didn't move but let the flames engulf him and as the attack dissipated into the air, he was left standing on a burnt and scorched stone. He clapped his hands enthusiastically and watched as the exhausted Yama fell to the floor and his sword returned to his sealed state.

"Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!" he called and walked over to Yama, lifting him up with ease and propping him against the wall. "This is what I was waiting for. Who noticed what he was doing as you all attacked me?" he asked as he turned to face the group but no-one answered. "Meditation! The art of going into your inner self and conversing with your Zanpakuto, allowing them to tell them their name and thus releasing the power of your Shikai!"

Most of the group slapped or shook their heads as they remembered the basics they were taught in the Shinigami academy. Under Masuki's instruction they all spread into lines and sat cross legged on the floor with their swords across their laps and eyes closed.

"Now, most of you won't be able to get it as quickly as Yama did, but that was because he no doubt was close to it when he was placed in the Maggot's nest. So everyday before training, we shall meditate for 2 hours." Masuki instructed as he walked through the rows of people.

"You are to react to nothing, you are to fade into yourself, make it like going to sleep while still retaining your consciousness. Listen, listen silently and you will hear it, the sound of your sword, its voice calling out to you and telling you their name. You must sink into the very depths of your heart and speak to them." He continued to walk amongst the group and made sure that they were doing as he said. He noticed a few who were only pretending so decided to test the whole lot.

"AAAAHHHHH!" He roared at the top of his lungs and the majority of people literally jumped into the air and nearly lost their bladder at the sudden rise of noise. "Not good enough, return to the meditation position and try again. You will only get more powerful if you actually try." Masuki then moved to the front of the group and adopted the position himself, drawing his sword as he sat down and laying it across his lap as he closed his eyes and rested his hands on his blade.

"**Masuki."**

"**Masuki."**

"**Masuki."**

"**Masuki!"**

"**Masuki!" **The voice called out of the darkness towards Masuki, who had just stood up and looked around. He was no longer in the Palace and was now standing in the streets of a Victorian-esque city. Streets with as many houses as possible crammed into it, lanterns lighting up the darkened street and litter, mud and other substances littered the ground. A heavy mist was settled around the entire area and made the distance of sight very small indeed. Masuki trekked down the centre road in front of him until the lights were far behind him and all he could see was the low glow of them and the mist that surrounded him.

"**Ah, Masuki, you have finally taken the time to come back here." **The voice said again as a dark figure became visible in the thick fog, a couple of steps in front of where Masuki was standing.

"Indeed, I thought that I might as well with all the others trying to do the same." Masuki said with a shrug of his shoulders. "I haven't talked to you in a while then?"

The dark figure moved slightly as he replied **"I'm sure you know exactly how long it has been since you were last here. No doubt you were deliberately avoiding coming here, but as for what purpose that will serve, you must inform me."**

"Indeed, it has been 21 yrs, 3 months and 23 days since I last visited this place. I don't suppose you have anything new you can teach me?" Masuki asked as he looked around the mist surrounding him.

"_**Kekekekekeke." **_The laugh came from someone other then the darkened figure and Masuki turned slowly to face the new arrival. To Masuki, it was just another darkened figure, except this one was about a head shorter then the first one. _**"You f*ck off for that many years and you have the f*cking nerve to come back and ask for something to help you?" **_The second voice snarled and took a step towards Masuki, who didn't react. _**"I f*cking love you man!" **_It said with another laugh and clapped his hands a bit overenthusiastically

"**Believe it or not, I actually do have something to teach you; something which should help with your fight against Yamamoto Genryuusai."**

"_**Lucky you, it seems like you get to learn two new moves then. I gots me something I want to teach you as well and you're going to LOVE it!"**_

Two hours passed and Masuki came back from his inner world, opening his eyes slowly and controlling his breathing with a quick deep breath in and then slowly exhaling. He stood up slowly and slid his Zanpakuto back into its scabbard silently. He noticed that everyone was now looking around and some of them had stood up as he did.

"Right then, we'll finish the training there for today. These guys…" he gestured to the hollows who had reappeared. "…will show you to your rooms and we'll start tomorrow as soon as I get my lazy arse up; which is when I'll come and get you."

x+x+x+x+x

After it had been realised that the intruder had escaped through the Kuchiki households Senkaimon, Soul Society was put under high alert and the gate itself sealed shut semi-permanently. Yamamoto had ordered the captains to inform their respective squads of the battle that will commence in 12 weeks but to keep their guard up as they could hardly trust the words of an intruder.

It had been discovered and confirmed that the 80th district, Zaraki, no longer existed with all the buildings being razed to the ground and all the spirits killed. The killing of members of the Onmitsukido had enraged Yourichi, who had sent out her top assassins into the real world to find the man, and it had been confirmed that the Maggot's nest was now completely empty; all the prisoners had escaped. It had also been confirmed that the members of Central 46 had been beheaded and that Yamamoto would take total command until the intruders were dealt with; severely.

Captain Kyouraku had called all his seated officers to a large room that resided in the 8th division barracks, and as they were all sat down listening to him, the Captain was stood on a raised platform at the front. He was repeating what Yamamoto had told him, and a look of worry spread across the faces of his division.

"Now, don't worry about it, I know that you are strong enough to fight the invasion off should it come to that. Don't panic and inform the others of this development." He told them before disappearing out of the room with Lisa in tow.

Yajuu was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed as his swords pressed awkwardly against the back of his legs. He had a serious look on his face and had listened carefully to the briefing that Shunsui had given and was now contemplating what he was going to do about it.

"There is no doubt that that huge guy is one of his friends that appeared in that Captains meeting and if I want to survive I'm going to have to get stronger. 12 weeks, I must get stronger." He muttered to himself as he moved away from the room and made his way out of the building. As he exited the building Kuri was waiting for him outside but as she went to speak, he seemed not to notice her but carried on walking while muttering to himself.

"Hey, Yajuu…" no reply, "Hey, Yajuu…!" no reply, "Oi, numpty!" Yajuu suddenly snapped his head up and realised that Kuri was walking along next to him. "Well, isn't it nice of you to recognise that I exist?"

"Oh, hey Kuri, when did you pop up?" he asked, still walking quite fast in an unknown direction.

"Uh, just randomly, anyway where you off to and what are are you muttering about?" she asked, jogging to keep up with him.

"Oh I was just thinking how I got my ass kicked on my last excursion to the real world. Apparently those guys are going to invade Soul Society in 12 weeks and I'm sure he's one of them." Yajuu said indifferently as Kuri gasped and dropped her jaw.

"They're going to invade here!"

"Yeah, but we'll make sure that they don't get past the gate!" he replied with an air punch. "Anyone I've got to zip of ahead, I've given myself a pretty rigid training programme to get me stronger in time for the battle, so I'll see you later." Yajuu then disappeared with shunpo leaving Kuri in his dust.

"Thanks for that Yajuu, I'll talk to you later." She muttered to herself before walking around the corner with a sad look on her face.

Yajuu appeared a couple of blocks away by the side of a slightly dislodged panel in contrast to the others in the area. He nudges it aside with his foot and stepped down onto the ladder that would lead him down to the sewers and his secret training area had discovered. He slid the panel back into place and descended into the sewers that the 4th division so frequently cleaned out. He dropped down the final rungs and looked around, checking for any stray Shinigami, before skimming around the edges of the large sewer river and eventually came to a slight indent into the wall. He pushed his back against it and then launched himself across the water with a magnificent leap unnatural looking to his stature. He landed on the other side with a little unbalance and then leant forward enough to not get wet.

He skimmed around the corner again and came to another indent on the wall, except this one had a ladder descending downwards. He quickly descended the ladder and came to an area about as big as the training arena that all divisions had behind their barracks. It was mainly a rocky area with a hot spring in the corner with the natural steam coming in from above it in a waterfall. This is where Yajuu headed first for the initial part of his training.

"Right then…" he said as he removed his hakama and underwear so that he was completely naked, and unsheathed his swords; leaving the scabbards at the side. "The challenge is to redirect the flow of the waterfall using nothing except the ferocity and speed of my sword swings. He said to himself as he stood in the shallow base of the small water fall and posed himself ready for attack. The reason he had stripped bare was because he was now getting extremely wet waiting under the water to start his training.

He held his two blades laterally to his body and slowed his breathing down to a crawl before inhaling deeply and starting his attacks. His right blade moved first with the snap of his wrist and the blade whipped through the water, knocking some of it aside but I kept on swarming down. His left hand copied it and he repeated the action so that a blade went through the water every 10 seconds. The longer he stood there, the faster he moved his hands so that eventually there was a blade passing through the water every second.

Even though a lot of water was being redirected there was still a lot of it pouring vertically down into the hot spring bed. Yajuu increased his speed some more until his swords were nothing but a blur passing through the water. After getting more and more animated, Yajuu suddenly roared and dealt a massive vertical blow upwards against the stream of water with his right hand blade and followed it up with an identical attack with his left. The power of the attack ripped through the water and split the water straight down the middle so that, temporarily, there were two waterfalls missing the base of the pool and splashing against the rock. Yajuu smiled and after a second or two the waterfall returned to normal.

"Ah, there we go…" he paused as he stepped out of the water and towards his clothes. "Finally managed to do it, but what next…ah yes, speed training."

He used a towel he had brought with him to dry himself and then redressed himself, slipping his two swords, now re-sheathed, into his belt on his left side. He moved away from the hot spring and moved to the centre of the large space that opened up to a relatively flat area that he would use to initiate the net part of his training.

He stepped back so that his feet were touching the base of a large rock and then started walking at a brisk pace forwards. When he reached the edge, he curved around and came back the same direction while increasing the speed of his walk. Eventually he moved into a slow jog, then a faster one, then a slow run, then a faster one and ended up in a full sprint. He kept the full speed sprint up for about 5 minutes and then decided that he had run long enough to get faster, which is when he started to use shunpo. He disappeared from one end of the arena, and appeared at the other, then repeated this action. As time moved on the time between disappearance and reappearance shortened until there was barely a second between it, he kept this speed up for as long as he could until he eventually collapse with exhaustion.

"Bloody hell, that's exhausting." He said through gasps of air. "What's next…basic footwork...can't be arsed…kendo…doesn't work with my two swords…so then I suppose it comes to that." He said as he pulled himself to his feet and removed the top half of his hakama.

He stretched out his arms and flicked his head to get his beaded hair out of his face before drawing his swords and holding them loosely by his sides. "Shikai practice it is then." He said before raising his hands so that they were shoulder height and the blades crossed on a downwards angle.

"Strike Twice…" he said with a gruff voice "Inadzuma!" he called and his Zanpakuto started to glow.

At his call, the blades started to change shape and reveal his Shikai sword form. Both the blades grew about 2 inches in length but that was where the similarities ended, the left hand blade flattened and straightened out, the tip becoming centralised, the guard thinned out and curled up on one end and down on the other, the handle grew in length and changed from a mossy green to white, and a crimson rope grew out of the end and headed up his arm.

The right hand sword also straightened out and the blade became reminiscent of a Ninjato but longer and thicker, the guard became a large rectangle of metal with one corner cut of and three thick bolts, one on each end and one through the middle, the handle became longer and changed from the mossy green to a white cotton and a crimson rope grew from the pommel and moved up his arm.

The ropes from each arm and crossed across his chest and back and then looped around his waist and joined at the back of his waist with an invisible seal. Yajuu hefted a weapon and then threw them into the air with great force, they flew straight up and when it seemed the rope would stop them, it extended and kept on going for a while before Yajuu grabbed a hold of it and yanked hard, bringing the swords back to his hands. "Seems to work…let's go." He said to himself before he started his training.

Many hours later, Yajuu was making his way back through the sewers before he reached the same place he had entered; marked by an 'x' scratched into the wall. He climbed up the ladder and pushed the plate aside only to come face to face with Kuri. His head crashed into hers and as she reeled back from the blow, as he flew back from the blow and fell down the ladder, landing on his back on the floor.

"Ow ow ow! That bloody hurt, who the hell?" Yajuu said, clutching the top of his head as he saw Kuri reappear at the top of the ladder clutching her now bleeding nose.

"You bloody fool! Look where you're bloody climbing!" she yelled at him. "Now get your arse up here so that I can kick it!"

"Look where I'm climbing my arse." He muttered to himself but still climbed the ladder slowly and as he emerged from the top he received a hefty boot on the bum.

"Stop it!" he called as he kicked the panel back in place with his foot and looked across at Kuri. "What are you doing here?"

"I'll tell you in a minute but what are you going to do about my bloody nose?" she yelled at him while pinching it with her left hand.

"Shouldn't be loitering at the top of ladders then should you!" Yajuu glared at her, but both of them knew it wasn't serious when they both burst out laughing.

After Kuri got her breather back she wiped the back of her hand, the one covered in blood, across her hakama and addressed Yajuu "You didn't think I'd follow you with that brush of you gave me back at the barracks?" she asked, a little hurt evident in her voice.

"Sorry I was focusing on my training schedule I had for me. I've got to get stronger if I want to beat that giant. Remember what happened to me last time I faced him?"

"I remember…" she muttered "How about I train with you then?"

"Can't do it, sorry, without sounding arrogant, although I probably will, you saw how strong I was against the Captain; I don't think you'd keep up." Yajuu saw the hurt on her face so moved closer to her and leant his hand across her shoulder. "But don't panic, once I've achieved my goal, we'll train together so that you can kick arse when they invade as well!"

A small smile crept onto her face and she brushed his hand away as she started to walk off but before turning the corner she stopped and turned her head to face him. "Oh, and you know you're on guard tonight, right?"

"Oh shi…" he said as Kuri laughed her head off as he ran off.

x+x+x+x+x

Byakuya was once again in the room that held the shrine to his dead wife, Hisana. He was knelt down in front of the picture and also a picture of Rukia was next to it. He had his eyes closed and his hands lay loosely on his knees. He opened them and then spoke quietly to himself.

"I am sorry Hisana." He said so quietly it was almost a mutter. "I had taken the decision to let Rukia get more dangerous missions because she had become much more powerful. It was an error in my judgement however and she has now joined you, maybe you'll be sisters again…" he paused with a sad smile on his lips. "I have failed you. However, my encounter with the killer has shown me that I cannot fall apart. I made a promise to uphold the rules, when I broke them to help Rukia and now I will once again make another promise under you watchful gaze." He paused to draw breath.

"I will defeat the silver haired Shinigami, but not for the revenge of Rukia, instead for the protection of Soul Society. I can not afford to be as emotional as I was after her death. I know you'd understand." He closed his eyes again, and went back to his prayers for Hisana and Rukia.

_A/N: So then, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. The war begins next chapter and during the uber fights a few surprises will make you gasp in awe! I guarantee it! Read & Review please._

**Next Time:**

**Masuki: "It's time; let us crush Soul Society to dust!"**

**?: "What the F*ck took you so long!"**

**Yajuu: "Here they come!"**

**Kenpachi: "That one is all mine!"**

**Chapter 8: Ready, Set, Go!**


	9. Chapter 8: Ready, Set, Go!

_A/N: Aren't you the lucky ones, an early release! This is a gift because I'll be out of commission for a week at ISCRM (Cools if you know what that is!). Anyhow, a twist in this one, so look forward to it and Read on! Oh yeah, in this arc Character Deaths will follow! Beware! :)_

**Chapter 8 – Ready, Set, Go!**

11 weeks, 5 days, 23 hours and 51 minutes have passed since the day that Masuki declared all out war on Soul Society. Many things have passed and now Masuki and his army are preparing to eradicate the Gotei 13 and everything that it protects.

x+x+x+x+x

Masuki strolled down the long corridor at a leisurely pace, not in a rush and glancing around as he walked. He wore his usual attire with a simple change; his shirt was now pitch black and his tie pure white, he called it his battle costume. A large door adjourned with strange symbols was at the end of the hallway and as he approached it, the white stone crumbled beneath the weight of the reiatsu that Masuki was letting leak from his body. He stepped out into Hueco Mundo's endless desert and stood in front of his army; they all bowed as he moved closer to them, all of them falling to their knees roughly.

Masuki glanced around with a frown on his face at his army, they had never bowed to him before and he wondered why they had started now; and then he realised he was still letting out his reiatsu and they were all being forcibly pushed down. He released the pressure and they slowly returned to their feet, first were his seven closest allies and the quickest to recover from his monstrous aura, next were the 100 or so of his Teikou, the previous prisoners of Soul Society's Maggot's Nest, and lastly were the large army of hollows of all classes; the Menos instinctively not roaming freely with Masuki in the area.

"There is one day left before we remove Soul Society from existence…" he paused and looked around at his army. "Is what I would say if I wasn't a lying conniving little bugger!" he laughed and shook his head slowly. "We will start the invasion in…" he looked at his watch and waited for the second hand to reach the 12 o'clock position. "8 minutes or thereabouts."

"I have already explained to my closest friends exactly what they are to do and my Teikou and the hollows will accompany me as we invade. Now I'm not one for speeches so everyone get to you positions and make sure you enter at the right time. Nakashima wouldn't be impressed if you ruined his carefully planned…plan." He paused and turned to face the palace behind him. "Now, we no longer need this so…"

Masuki raised his hand and viciously increased his reiatsu, focusing it all on the huge stone palace. His reiatsu was so powerful that it distorted the air and the whole sky above the palace shimmered with power. The palace shook and trembled and then bits of the outer walls began to crumble and fall and in a minute of two it was completely razed to the ground, a pile of white rubble that indicated it had been there.

"I'll build my new palace on the grave of Soul Society." Masuki said as he turned to back to his army. "Now I've no doubt that Kisuke Urahara has put up means to detect a Garganta should it open in Soul Society but that doesn't matter, when I open that Garganta it will be fairly obvious that we are attacking." He paused and looked at his army "Now go! Let's get this party started!" he called and clapped his hands once.

As the seven important people moved away and split into their usual pairs, disappearing through separate Garganta's, the Teikou and the hollows all started moving but stopped as Masuki raised his hand high with his palm held towards them,

"Sorry forgot something that I need to tell you something, the others already know but you can have anyone you want as long as one of them is not already fighting them but there are 3 people that you do not go near. One…" he raised a finger "Hachigen Ushoda, Vice Captain of the Kido corps and a fairly obvious man, being quite large and having bright pink hair. Two…" he raised a second figure. "Tessai Tsukabishi, Captain of the Kido Corps, another easily recognisable figure; standing quite tall and usually wearing a large purple robe. Finally number three…" he raised a third finger. "The Captain Commander of the Gotei 13, Yamamoto Genryuusai-shigekuni, is all mine. Not that any of you would survive an encounter with him for more then a second or two." He lowered his hand and turned about, tapping the air to open a Garganta. "Those three are mine to deal with but anyone else you feel like fighting, there all yours. Just try to at least last more then a minute." He laughed and stepped into the large Garganta and created a stable floor for the Teikou and hollows to follow him on.

x+x+x+x+x

"What is that?" the man asked. He wore a white tunic, ragged with age and falling apart at the edges. He was had been wandering aimlessly around and had bumped into some sort of door.

It was large, about 50 feet, and was nothing other then a frame with strange symbols carved into and two plain white doors. As the wandering man stared at it questioningly, the symbols on the frame glowed brightly and the doors swung open to reveal a bright square of light. The man moved forward and slowly reached out his hand to touch the light but before he could something shot out of it and grabbed his head.

It was an arm, black leather clad and the size of a tree trunk. The man tried to struggle against the dustbin lid hand but to no avail. He screamed as the pressure crushed his head until eventually it imploded and blood splattered everyone. Taiki then stepped out of the light and raised his hand to his face.

"Urrgh, that won't wash out easily." He moaned and bent down to scrap his hand against the dirt to remove the crimson.

He stood up straight and looked around, confirming that he was in the right place; he was. He walked forward and eventually came to a line that had been carved into the floor with something sharp, probably a sword or dagger. He looked around again but despite walking down the centre of the street no one was around. The line was carved at a distance of about a foot away from where the street ended. Taiki smiled and stepped forward, easily clearing the line.

As he did so there was a large rumbling and suddenly massive walls of a yellowy white came crashing down and formed a massive wall that started to surround Sereitei. As they smashed into the dusty ground, a giant of a man also appeared. Taiki looked up with a frown at the man who was more massive then he was and then tipped his head to the side with an audible crack.

"You're a big one aren't you? I take it you are Jidanbo of the Gate Guardians." Taiki asked with a grin as he turned his body side on to Jidanbo.

"It has been so long since anyone has tried to pass through Torureimon without a pass." He said in his deep rumble of a voice. "I finally have something to do." The fez topped man gazed down at the man before him. "I'll treat you well, Kid."

Taiki's grin simply widened as Jidanbo talked and he slowly raised his right arm up slowly to his shoulder height. He flicked his hand so that the palm was facing outwards and then moved his left hand up so that it covered his face.

"Brace yourself, gorilla man!" he laughed.

x+x+x+x+x

The white doors swung outwards and a bright light shone from within as the symbols on the frame also glowed. A black clad leg stretched out of the light and followed the slender giant that was Rokurou. He stepped clear of the doorway and then dropped down to his haunches and gazed ahead of him at a graze in the dirt before him. A second person followed him out of the light and stood next to him, the small Tomoyo still not quite as tall as the folded Rokurou.

None of them said anything but Tomoyo lightly skipped forward across the line in the dirt and as she did so a massive yellowy white wall crashed down in front of her with a large plume of dust and wind. Tomoyo skipped back to Rokurou's side but other then that neither of them reacted, even when a giant of a man that man Rokurou look like an ant also dropped down in front of them.

"Ahh, someone taller then Roki!" Tomoyo said with a laugh and receiving a glare from Rokurou in return "You must be Danzomaru, right?"

The dark skin of the giant shone slightly in the bright light as his Mohicaned head leaned forward to gaze down at the people before him.

"Naughty little ants for trying to enter here without a pass." His voice surprisingly high for his large body, but still a couple of octave's lower then a normal person's voice. "At least you'll give me something to do."

Rokurou simply grinned madly as Tomoyo jumped lightly to her left so that there was a distance between her and her team mate before she raised her left hand and clenched it into a fist and then flicked out her index and middle fingers straight out and her thumb popped upwards. She then moved her right hand to her face a smiled happily.

Rokurou unfolded himself to his full height, still dwarfed by Hikonyuto however, and stretched out his right hand with his long fingers outstretched. His other hand then come up and gripped his forearm, easily wrapping around his skinny arm.

"F*ck you." Rokurou said.

x+x+x+x+x

The large white doors swung outwards just as the symbols around the frame all lit up and then he doors revealed the white light that it was hiding. As Sly and Nakashima stepped out of the light they were immediately accosted by two Shinigami, they had their swords sheathed but instead were holding long two pronged spears. Sly raised his eyebrows as the two low level guards brandished their weapons at the pair and he even shook his head before disappearing.

He reappeared, with a shock, right in front of the two Shinigami and had hold of their own swords; he drew them quickly and flicked his wrist so that their heads fell to the ground with a thud. He then paused as he scanned for anymore Shinigami in the area but came up with nothing, he glanced at Nakashima but he also shook his head. Sly shrugged and dropped the swords to the ground just as the bodies started to disintegrate.

"Wasn't expecting anyone to be here, much less Shinigami, but it looks like it was just a random patrol that found the door when it appeared." Sly said as he moved forward so his two was on the edge of a slice in the ground. He glanced at Nakashima questioningly and the small boy nodded briskly.

Sly moved his foot across the line, smudging it as he did so, and the massive door and yellowy white walls that protected Sereitei against intruders fell into place with earth moving power and speed. Sly hopped a little bit back to avoid another falling object in the shape of a giant of a man that had a bit too much fat on him for his own good.

"Uurrr." He moaned as he stretched out stiff limbs "You woke me up little babies, now I will have to crush you."

Nakashima looked up at the giant with disdain and then looked across at Sly. "So we get Hikonyuto then it seems. No trouble to deal with then."

Nakashima then rolled his shoulder and drew his fist back as if he was about to attempt to punch the massive Shinigami. His other hand rose up and hovered in front of his face. Sly smiled up at Hikonyuto and then placed his palms together as if in prayer.

"Don't regret this dude." Sly said with his grin unmoving.

x+x+x+x+x

The final pair stepped out of their own door and the perfect Vera glanced around the area that they had appeared in. It was pretty run down and Very turned her noise up to a nasty smell that was floating by. Riku stepped out next to her and also looked around, except he was confirming that had exited through the right door. He looked down at the floor and saw the notch that told them they were right.

Neither of them said anything as Riku stepped forward and, turning to Vera, Vera nodded to tell him to go ahead. Riku then put his foot across the line and watched unmoving as the massive walls, with a single door, dropped out of the heavens. Vera physically grimaced as a giant also dropped with the gate, his stapled grin unending.

"Hur, hur, hur." He rumbled "Looks like some little piggies what to try and enter without a pass. Looks like I need to teach them little piggies a lesson."

Riku looked up at the face of the giant as he spoke. "I presume you are Kaiwan then."

Riku didn't wait for a reply but instead he raised a clenched fist and held it out before letting his index and pinkie finger flick out, his other hand moving up to his face. Vera looked across at him and then raised her hand up to her face as if she were about to blow a kiss, her other hand touching the side of her nose and face.

"Your flawed face makes me retch." She said with a grimace.

x+x+x+x+x

In the centre of Sereitei things were started to get tense, with a large amount of guards posted at various strategic positions around the area. With the invasion possibly a day away every Shinigami had been put onto high alert and were told to report anything suspicious immediately to their Captains. The Captains had been given a circumference around their headquarters that their divisions were charged with protecting and it was made up so that the entirety of Sereitei was covered by one division of another. However, this also meant that there were a number of area's that were covered by two divisions but this was deliberately planned so that any division can get instant back up from their neighbours.

12 weeks had passed without major incident and many of the higher levelled seated officers had been training like crazy to help protect Soul Society against whatever threat was to come. Many had heard that the leader of the enemy had barged his way into a Captains meeting and, not only that, but also escaped unscathed. It was also the same man that was rumoured to have fought both Shinji Hirako and Zaraki Kenpachi at the same time and reduced both of them to a critical condition. One which had taken Shinji a long time to recover from, with the expert help of Unohana and Hachigen.

There had been high tensions ever since then because the Captain Commander had not trusted the word of the enemy, rightly, and made sure that the Gotei 13 were ready for war at any time that they might invade.

Suddenly a loud wailing and ringing of bells filled the area and Shinigami started to run around and make sure that everyone was in the correct positions. The alarm bell was indicate that someone had tried to enter Sereitei without pass and had activated the Sekkiseki wall that surrounded Sereitei as well as strengthening the bubble that surrounded the upper echelons of Soul Society.

"Is it really time already? Have they started their attack!" One Shinigami asked as he rushed to his guard point.

"Dunno, but the walls were activated and the Gate guardians are there so if it is them they're pretty stupid to attack outright." Another one said.

"It might not be them, maybe some spirit from Rukongai tried to sneak in?" the first one said with doubt in his eyes.

"Maybe so but that would be one hell of a coincidence that they would try on the day before the invasion is due…" he paused and looked around slowly. "Hey, do you feel that?"

The first Shinigami looked around and then shivered violently. "What is that feeling, it's like something his sucking the life out of me."

"I'm not sure but it can't be good…" he paused again as he strained his ears. "You hear that?"

A whistling had started to feel the air and it sounded like something big was flying in their direction. They looked around wildly in all directions until a shout went up to their right and something massive crashed through the buildings. At the same time, three more objects of similar size smashed through buildings and they collided in the middle of the area with a deafening crash. Many Shinigami rushed over to whatever it was and when they realised what is what a number of gasps were audible.

"Wh…what the hell?" a female Shinigami said with a stutter. "That's…that's the gate guardians! All four gate guardians, what are they doing here!" she asked, fear in her voice.

"Oh crap, look at their fronts!" another one called out and pointed at a smoking Jidanbo. "What the hell happened to them?"

"Not only that but whatever attacked them, not only knocked them out but threw them such a massive distance from the gates to here. What monstrous power is this?"

"So…" one Shinigami started and then stopped mid sentence.

"Hey, what's wr…." A second one froze and then one by one the majority of the Shinigami guards seemed to freeze. The 11th seat of the 3rd division looked around wildly at the frozen Shinigami and then realised that they weren't frozen, they were shaking with fear.

Seemingly as one, the entire group of fear felled Shinigami moved their heads and looked up into the sky. The 11th seat followed suit and as he did so his so a massive hole rip into the very sky itself. As it appeared another alarm started up, this one more erratic and panicky, and overrode the gate alarm.

"Oh dear god…" the seated officer muttered as he saw a single figure drop out of the rip. It wasn't the figure that had instilled such massive fear in the Shinigami, well not yet anyway, it was the hordes of Menos Grande that were visible in the sky; their giant white faces clear in the blackness and the sheer number of them bordering on insane. A manic laugh echoed around Sereitei and then the sky disappeared.

That's what it looked like to the Shinigami that were gazing at the sky. A hollowing sound and the world seemed to reverberate as a dark grey ellipsoid appeared in the sky and tore its way towards Sereitei. It hit the barrier but only paused momentarily before it crushed it and the barrier dissipated into the air. The rip fell from the sky and before anyone could react it hit the defeated gatekeepers and reduced them to ash before it expanded violently and crushed a large amount of guards.

Then the single figure disappeared and the sky darkened as the Menos Grande flooded from the rip and dropped from the sky to Sereitei, accompanied with smaller hollows and even a couple of human sized ones that hid behind the massive shadows. As the hollows rained down, it was also noticed a small army dressed in white were following the monsters down and attacking a Shinigami within their sights.

A Menos Grande landed on the scorched area that had been attacked by the rip in the sky and started to idly move towards any Shinigami it could see, all of them running from the massive beast. Before it could cause any serious damage, however, a line appeared in the centre of its mask and then two more either side before it fell into pieces and disappeared after being defeated.

Yamamoto sheathed his sword and it returned to its cane state as he surveyed the chaos which had so suddenly ensued with the destruction of the walls and barrier and the opening of such a massive Garganta in the skies. His wrinkled face showed the first signs of anger but his eyes remained seemingly closed.

"It seems like some children want to play soldier." He growled. "I will show them that playing with fire is a dangerous sport."

x+x+x+x+x

Masuki laughed hysterically as his sky splitting attack broke the barrier that protected Sereitei and smashed into the central section, eradicating the four gate guardians as a bonus. He looked at the damage his attack had done and then glanced at his watch before looking up into the Garganta

"It's time; let us crush Soul Society into dust!" He then used shunpo and disappeared, moving across Sereitei with blinding speed.

He appeared on the ground and glanced around before setting off at a leisurely pace, sucking his reiatsu deep inside him to avoid any of it leaking out. He trundled along the walled alley with no haste and after a minute of two he came to a crossroads. In the maze that was Sereitei, he had come to a four way road that gave him 3 ways to go not including where he had just come from. He stepped into the junction and as he did so a single massive square pilled crashed directly in front of him.

As Masuki looked on intrigued, more pillars came crashing down and formed a massive shield shaped barrier of interlocking white pillars with a final one slid across the back like a locking pin. Masuki looked on confused and before he could do anything else something started to appear on his left. It was a wheel type object with interlocking slats pointing towards the centre. As it finished forming another object appeared on Masuki's right and took the shape of many hexagons attaching together and forming something that looked like a honeycomb. Then above him more slats appeared and formed a massive lampshade like object with a single pillar on an inner ring pointing towards Masuki.

Masuki frowned and as he was about to move forwards the object to his left started to spin and the interlocking slats spun open to reveal a man in a large purple robe and a horned hairstyle appear with his hands outstretched towards Masuki.

"Oh shi…!" Masuki started as Tessai thrust his hands forwards with a Kido attack.

"Hado #88, Hiryugekizokushintenraiho!" Tessai called and a massive column of blue energy mixed with lightning exploded out of his hands and headed towards the trapped Masuki.

Masuki hopped back as much as the barrier allowed and dropped his hand to the hilt of his sword. "Bakudo #78, Tenkyogenkou!" he swiftly drew his sword and aimed a swipe down the middle of the attacking Kido.

Thanks to his Kido assisted strike, Masuki managed to stop Tessai's attack from reaching him but he was still trapped within the barrier as Tessai had retreated as soon as his attack had fired. Masuki turned towards the massive white column barrier and raised his sword high.

"Hado #64, Bunken!" he called and slashed a right to left diagonal attack on the barrier, he then slashed a left to right diagonal attack and watched as the white column barrier crumbled and, as it was linked to the others, the entire barrier broke down to reveal the pink haired Vice-Captain behind it with wide eyes and heavy breathing.

"Ah, of course, the Captain and Vice-Captain of the Kido Corps; Tessai Tsukabishi and Hachigen Ushoda." Masuki said with a sly grin "I should have guessed that you would be sent against me. I am impressed that you managed to find me though, how did you do that?"

"We have no reason to answer you, are you going to surrender?" Tessai asked as he appeared, again, to Masuki's left.

"Not a chance, so I guess we better start the battle then." Masuki then spun rapidly to face Tessai and dashed towards him sword dragging behind him. As Tessai moved back to avoid the attack, Masuki also stopped and held his palm outstretched. "Hado #63, Raikoho!" A flash of yellow lightning sprang forward and crashed into Tessai with a massive shockwave, a green barrier visible behind the bright light.

"Good, but don't worry…" He said and looked back and forth from Tessai and Hachigen slowly. "I'm going to beat you with Kido so I won't use my sword." Seemingly confirming the fact as he sheathed his Zanpakuto with a quiet grinding noise.

Hachigen then fired a red flame attack but Masuki batted it away with one hand while pointing his other towards Tessai. "Bakudo # 72, Binsouteguchisuichii!" As Tessai created another barrier to block Masuki's Kido, an orange box trapped him and before Hachigen could do anything the box was suddenly empty and he was left alone with Masuki.

"Hado #34, Ketatamashiite!" Masuki called and pointed at Hachigen who quickly clapped his hands together and the invisible blade clashed with the orangey barrier Hachigen had created. "A basic barrier but affective I suppose…" he paused hand a single crack appeared in the shield. "…or is it?"

Masuki then quickly swiped his hand and the shield started to slice in the arc of his hand. Hachigen stepped back to avoid the attack but not enough as the Kido blade sliced easily through the shield and cut off the tops of all his fingers and the tips of his thumb. He cried out in pain as blood spurted from the wound and he fell to one knee in pain. Hachigen kept his hands together and chanted something under his breath. Masuki braced for an attack but barrier's appeared over the wounds and sealed the bleeding which Masuki nodded at.

"Stopping blood loss first, practical…" Masuki said as he watched Hachigen panting at the effort to keep himself from bleeding all over the floor. "…and you are incredible at Kido. Was that barrier your own creation? It was awesome!" he smiled as he praised his enemy. "But your only weakness is that you get tired quickly because you cast high level Kido with no incantation or trying to stop attacks from me. Like those barriers for example." Hachigen didn't say anything but stood up and took a couple of steps back.

"Bakudo #63, Sajo Sabaku!" a long coil of bright yellow chains appeared loosely around Masuki but before they could trap him, he disappeared and reappeared behind Hachigen.

"Close, but not quite." Masuki said and placed his hand on Hachigen's shoulder. "Bakudo #87, Gekihashinjou!" A pained expression passed across Hachigen's face as all his muscles bulged and his tendon's and veins stuck out clearly. "Looks like you were just no match for me on yourself, if Tessai was here as well I'm sure the outcome would be different…maybe." He said with a laugh and then moved in front of Hachigen so he could see him.

Masuki then stepped forward and flicked his hand forward with immense speed, his finger extending and plunged into Hachigen's chest. A muffled gasp came from the large mans chest and Masuki looked into his eyes. "You might recognise this one; Bakudo #56, Kikankoushuushadan."

Hachigen's eyes widened in pain and shock as separate barriers started to form around his organs and prevented them fro functioning. It took a second or two and then all his vital organs were sealed within separate barriers and he was slowly dying. As Masuki removed his finger and flicked away the blood, he suddenly jumped back as a bright green light appeared around Hachigen and as it was about to explode it reformed into a green triangle, freezing Hachigen in place.

"Mmm, Jikanteishi I presume." Masuki said and slowly rotated until he came to face Tessai once again. "With Central 46 out, I suppose you can use that without worry then. What now?"

Tessai kept a stony silence but raised his hand in a claw and before Masuki could do anything the world spun dizzyingly and Masuki ended up on the other side to Tessai, the latter now in between Masuki and Hachigen.

"Whoa, that makes me dizzy…" Masuki said with a shake of his head. As he reoriented himself he looked across at Tessai and realised he was chanting a Kido Spell. "Bakudo #93, Tenshushi-rudo!" Masuki called and spun his hand around in a circle in front of him, creating an octagonal barrier with strange symbols covering it. Just as 6 bars of light shot out of Tessai and headed in his direction, they hit the barrier and didn't go any further, at the relief of Masuki.

"What is your purpose here?" Tessai asked while still sat stock still and the bars of light emanating from his body.

"Ask your boss, I'm sure he could probably hazard a good enough guess." Masuki snarled. "Oh, nice attack by the way, I've never seen it before."

Tessai ignored Masuki's comment. "Then on the command of Captain-Commander Genryuusai-Shigekuni I will eradicate you from this world." As he spoke, Masuki's barrier cracked and then broke and the six bars impaled Masuki in the shoulders, abdomen and thighs. Masuki struggled for a second and then fell limp. Tessai then pressed his fingers together but looked surprised when nothing happened.

"Da~mn!" Masuki complained and cracked his neck. "I hoped that I could fight you and Hachigen with just Kido but I suppose that isn't going to happen." Masuki's eyes flared golden and Tessai was pushed back as the bars cracked and shattered under his gaze. "However…" Masuki disappeared and reappeared next to Tessai and smashed his foot into his head. Tessai was flung across the path and then Masuki pulled both fists back. "Hado #99, Doragonotakebi!" he punched his fist forwards and Tessai's eyes grew wide as the massive attack fired at him. A mix of Lightning, Earth, Water, Air and Fire combined to make a devastating attack that Tessai only just blocked with a Kido shield but the sheer force pushed him across the ground and destroyed a number of buildings before breaking the barrier and smashing into Tessai.

The Captain roared in pain and disappeared into the rubble of a building as the Kido exploded around him. Masuki then turned back to Hachigen and dispelled the Kido wit ha flick of his wrist. Hachigen was brought back to life and he struggled to breath and started to die again. Masuki watched for a second and then reached for his sword, drawing it slowly.

"No more messing around." He said before whipping forward and removing the top half of Hachigen's head. There seemed to be no injury but then Hachigen's large body tilted over and the decapitated part slid of with a sucking sound as it fell to the ground.

"Yamamoto, you are next old man!" Masuki roared with bloodlust in his eyes, but before he could carry on a ringing came from his pocket and he calmed down enough that it looked like his rage had never been there. He flipped the phone open and answered it.

"What the f*ck took you so long!" the female voice shouted and Masuki reeled away from the phone. "F*cking 12 weeks wasn't part of the plan! You stupid d*ckhead! Why the hell did you give them that sort of time to prepare?"

"Because it's fun" Masuki said slowly. "Anyway, it's started now. I'm on my way to Yamamoto there, so meet me there…" He paused as he thought of something "Unless you're already there."

"Screw you!" She called before the line went dead and Masuki was left alone with his thought for a while.

_A/N: First of all, I know I missed some stuff from the 'Next Time' that I put in the last chapter but there's a good reason for that. I got a bit carried away we could say. I hope you enjoyed the chapter so please Read & Review._

**Next Time:**

**Masuki: "I don't have time to waste with you."**

**Yajuu: "Here they come!"**

**Kenpachi: "That one is all mine!"**

**Sly: "How curious that you came to find me…"**

**Chapter 9: The Chaos**


	10. Chapter 9: The Chaos

_A/N: Bit of a late release, sorry. Anyways, read on!_

**Chapter 9 – The Chaos**

Yajuu felt the energy of the attacks without even seeing them, except for the plume of smoke and dust as something crashed through Sereitei. As the group looked at the explosion they all saw the massive attack screech from the sky and obliterate the barrier around Sereitei and watched in awe as the multitudes of Hollow rained from the sky. Yajuu grinned slightly and reached for his swords, drawing them in a flash and holding them by his sides.

"Here they come." He muttered to himself as the smaller, weaker hollows descended into the area his group was charged to protect. His group was commanded by the 10th seat of his division and then consisted of 8 other non seated Shinigami including Yajuu. There was no order given but as the weaker hollow started to stomp around, they moved forward and easily cut through them; their bulging muscles falling to their sharpened blades.

Yajuu deflected a fist with one sword and stabbed the hollow through with the other before lopping of its head. He spun around a long tongue attack and then sliced it off with a flick of his wrist. The hollow screamed in pain and charged forward but Yajuu easily dispatched it with a vertical blow to the bony mask. The other Shinigami were faring similar and were easily defeating the hollow, until the massive form of a Menos Grande made its appearance.

There were cries of terror as the Shinigami jumped away to avoid being stepped on but before they could run away the 10th seat took command of the situation with shouted orders. The monster looked down and a ball of energy formed in front of its mouth and the Shinigami broke ranks again as the raging beam of energy destroyed half the street.

"Cero!" the 10th seat cried as another blast fired off and another section of Sereitei was destroyed. "We have to take this thing down guys!" he called and moved towards the hollow on his own.

Yajuu shook his head and then followed suite and switched his right hand sword to a reverse grip and pointed two fingers before calling out. "Bakudo #4, Hainawa!" and fired the thin tendril of golden energy at the Hollows legs. It attached to the black clothe and then Yajuu circled around, tangling the legs up. As he did this the 10th seat was attacking the white shoes as that was all he could reach.

"Timbers!" he called out and the 10th seat looked up to see the Menos toppling over and jumped out of the way of the falling enemy. "Guys, all pierce its mask at the same time!" Yajuu called out and jumped onto the Menos' back, before sprinting towards its head.

The other Shinigami had recovered their confidence and all rushed towards the massive bony mask and stabbed their swords into it with all their force. The hollow screamed and the 10th seat called out and his Zanpakuto released into a large Naginata type weapon. He attacked with a swift swipe down the middle of the mask but it only cracked and the hollow started using its hands to lever itself back to its feet. The Shinigami all jumped away as it stood up and wondered how to take this thing down.

Yajuu then appeared on top of the hollows head and looked down at his team mates. They looked up with awe and Yajuu waved cheerfully before dropping down onto the long spiky nose of the Menos. The Menos screamed again and shook its head trying to shake Yajuu loose but to no avail. Yajuu switched both swords into a reverse grip and raised them high in the air. He winked at the giant and then plunged his swords into the crack made by the 10th seat and the hollow screamed its loudest yet but still did not fall.

"You are a tough one!" Yajuu said with gritted teeth as the Shinigami below him started bombarding the Menos' feet with different Kido attacks.

The Menos stomped around destroying buildings and walls but the Shinigami didn't let up on his attack. Yajuu was hanging on to his swords which were lodged in the crack down the middle of its mask and trying hard to keep his footing on the long nose. The air around the Menos' head suddenly thickened and Yajuu felt himself being pushed downwards by the force of the reiatsu of the Menos as it released another Cero into the area.

"Enough!" Yajuu said and twisted his swords violently so that the blades were facing away from each other. With a loud roar he pulled outwards and the bony mask cracked and splintered with the force that Yajuu exerted and eventually it smashed altogether as his swords ripped free. The Menos roared in pain as blood spurted from its wound but Yajuu silenced it with two mighty slashes on diagonals of each other; slicing into the Menos' head. Yajuu then spun around and leaped off the nose as the Menos started to disintegrate back to where it came from.

Just before Yajuu became jam on the floor, the 10th seat called out a Kido spell and a star shaped net of Kido appeared below him and he fell harmlessly into the softened energy. As it settled into stillness, it disappeared and Yajuu landed on the ground bouncing slightly and the 10th seat walked up and slapped his back.

"One of the craziest things I've seen Yajuu, truly crazy." He said with a shake of his head.

"That's why you love me!" he called with a laugh and then suddenly smashed his palm into the 10th seats chest, shoving him away.

As the 10th seat called out he saw the sword blade pass through where he had been standing a second ago and made a note to thank Yajuu later. Yajuu then swung his sword at the assailant but the white clad enemy dodged away and raised his sword into a guard position. As he did so a number of other similarly dressed people appeared and started attacking the Shinigami, the 10th seat and Yajuu the only ones fighting one on one, the others having 2 or 3 Shinigami on one of the newcomers. Yajuu leapt forward and clashed blades with his opponent and pushed him away from the others so that they could have some privacy while fighting.

"Yajuu Kikuishi, member of the 8th division and the man you're about to lose a fight to!" he said and held his swords slightly above his waist.

The man smiled and brought his sword down to his side. "Yama Shinku, Leader of the Teikou" He said and flicked his red hair out of his face.

"Ooo, the leader?" Yajuu questioned with a grin "Pot luck or were you aiming for me?"

"Aiming for you, you think highly of yourself Shinigami, prepare yourself for death." Yama said and lunged forward with an attack which Yajuu easily parried away with a single blade.

Yajuu then jumped away and spun the sword in his left hand before sheathing it away on his waist. "Won't be needing that." He said and then clasped his sword with two hands.

Yama didn't say anything but narrowed his eyes at the Shinigami who thought to hold himself back against him. _An early death for him then _He thought and started his attack on Yajuu.

The two swords clashed against each other as the two combatants tried to overpower each other but they were equally matched. Sparks flew as the fought and walls collapsed as one or the other dodged a strong attack. Yama swung down but Yajuu matched his swing and blocked the attack and pushed the large man away with a flick of his multi coloured hair. He then jumped forward and knocked aside Yama's blade, before slicing down and cutting through the glasses on his face.

Yama stepped back and raised his hand to his face, removing the ruined spectacles, and then his eyes widened as a thin line of blood appeared and then started to run down his face and into his mouth. He spat the blood away and charged forward locking blades with Yajuu once again.

"You should know that I am no push over!" he roared and kicked Yajuu in the stomach, making him reel back and receive a shallow cut to his shoulder, thanks to a last second dodge.

The attack sliced through his hakama and only just pierced his skin, causing a small blood droplet to slide out and down his chest. He smiled grimly and then held his sword aloft before disappearing with shunpo. Yama started as he felt a blade pass close to his head and as he turned he realised that Yajuu had cut most of his red hair off, watching as it glided to the ground. Another breeze and a small nick came off his sleeve, and Yama whirled around to try and follow Yajuu's speed.

Yajuu sped past Yama in all directions and as he did so, he would take of a small bit of clothing and make a shallow cut in his skin. He did this for a minute of two and watched as Yama tried to dodge or parry but simply wasn't fast enough to do so. Eventually he roared loudly and let of a burst of reiatsu. It wasn't strong enough to stop Yajuu, but he did, appearing behind Yama sitting on one of the crumpled walls.

"No need to get angry there, you'll only get worse at fighting if you do." Yajuu said as he rested his sword against his leg and leant back with apparent aloofness.

Yama's rage didn't subside but he instead moved his sword so the blade was slanted towards the ground and moved his left hand to the base of the metal. "Wreak havoc on the earth, Kazanshutsu!" he called and his sword exploded with fire and smoke and turned into his released form of armoured arms.

"Oh bugger." Yajuu said as he felt the swell of reiatsu and jumped away just as a column of lava and fire incinerated the rocks he had just been sat on. He twisted to face Yama and drew his second sword. "Guess you're stronger then you look, I wasn't expecting you guys to have gained Shikai so quickly; makes your boss an even scarier guy."

Yajuu ran forward, dragging his blades behind him, and ducked under another column of fire before jumping high to avoid a second. As he came up to Yama, he spun in the air and aimed to decapitate the Teikou. Yama stepped back and the blade flashed past his nose and as he bought his arm up to attack, Yajuu landed on it with a hand and pushed it back down before kicking him in the face.

Yajuu released the arm, and dropped down so he was below and jumped up with his blades aiming for his chest. Yama recovered quickly slammed an arm down, blocking Yajuu's attack and then punched him in the side of his head with his other arm. As he did so, he let loose lave and fire and Yajuu was launched across the street, crashing through the wall and into a building; only to have it collapse over him.

Yama punched his fists together and flames flickered from his shoulder funnels and black smoke plumed from the dark holes running down his arms. He then threw both fists forward and melted the building and surrounding area to slag with his lava. The Teikou leader stepped forward cautiously but was confident that he had just finished the Shinigami off, before he saw the lava bubble in the middle and Yajuu through it off him like water.

"How is it the lava does not affect you? Shinigami are not that resilient." Yama asked as Yajuu stepped forward until he was clear of the danger and shook his body to get the lava off.

"Lovely thing us Shinigami can do called Kido." He said as a nearly invisible barrier disappeared from surrounding his body. "Without that I'd be like the rocks behind me." Gesturing to the melted building behind him.

Yajuu rushed forward and swung with both swords but Yama blocked it with his fists only to have the blades start slicing through. Yajuu grinned and switched to a reverse grip and dropped his swords before slicing upwards and cutting deep into un-armoured skin under the shoulders. Yama cried out and Yajuu kicked him in the stomach and as he stepped back, sliced off the nozzles at the front of his weapon. Lava started to leak out and Yama aimed a back hand to Yajuu's head but he ducked to avoid the blow.

Yajuu then flicked his wrists and popped an armoured plate off of each arm, Yama crying out in pain as he did so. Yajuu then rammed a blade through Yama's arm to the hilt and pulled him forwards, slashing with his free sword as he did so. The blade passed through Yama's eyes and rendered him blind as blood flooded down his face and into his mouth. He spluttered and fell to his knees as Yajuu pulled his blade free and booted him in the head, knocking him onto his back.

"Guess you're not as strong as you make yourself out to be, eh?" Yajuu said and stabbed a blade through one of Yama's hands and trapping him to the floor. "Next time, you better…" he started but then paused. "Saying that, there won't be a next time." And then pierced Yama's chest through his heart. "Just be aware your Teikou will not last long." He said and pulled his blades free, flicking them before sheathing them at his side.

x+x+x+x+x

Masuki had his back leant against a wall and was silently observing the Shinigami darting around trying to fight of the Hollows, the Teikou and Masuki's friends. He focused and pinpointed each of the other seven who were around Sereitei and then located the Captains, making a guess about who would fight who. He smiled and then moved off the wall, heading towards one of the large buildings in the area.

As he walked slowly, a number of Shinigami tried to fight him but didn't fare well against Masuki, who simply snapped their blades with his hand and pierced them with the broken piece; all without breaking stride. Apart from the minor Shinigami trying it, he had no interruptions for a while and was getting bored before he saw a captain run across the street in front of him. He stopped and as he did so a number of Shinigami encircled him and a black haired Shinigami stepped forward.

"Surrender yourself; there is no way you can win." Hisagi said as he held his sword in front of him. He shuddered as Masuki turned his head and looked into his eyes with no emotion. It made Hisagi very uneasy.

Just as Masuki was about to react, the wall exploded next to them and as the Shinigami spun around to face the new danger they sighed as Kenpachi stepped out of the rubble, Yachiru balanced on his shoulder and pointing straight at Masuki.

"I found him Ken-Chan!" she called in her girly voice and then jumped off his shoulder and landed on the wall beside him.

"That one is all mine." Kenpachi growled and the other Shinigami stepped away from Masuki as Kenpachi drew his sword menacingly. "You guys go find someone else to fight!" they all obeyed and ran off, except Hisagi who faced Kenpachi.

"Captain Kenpachi…" he started and then stopped in thought "Never mind." He said and disappeared with shunpo.

Kenpachi didn't wait to talk and lunged forward with a wild strike, Masuki ducked and bounced back up; smashing him in the face with an elbow. As the captain reeled back, Masuki disappeared and appeared behind Yachiru; clasping her head with one hand and lifting her into the air. Kenpachi simply smiled as Yachiru spun around and glared at Masuki, releasing her reiatsu in a cat shaped explosion of energy. Masuki didn't react but back handed her to knock her unconscious.

"I wouldn't go any further." Kenpachi growled and stepped forward, but stopped as Masuki held his blade across Yachiru's throat.

"Nor should you or…" he paused and made a mocking thinking face. "Oh what the hell…" and then ran his blade along her throat, blood welling out of the wound.

Kenpachi roared and jumped forward, Masuki dropping Yachiru as he came, and wildly swung in anger. Masuki caught Kenpachi's hand to stop the attack and then broke his wrist with a vicious twist, causing Kenpachi's blade to fall. Before it touched to floor, Masuki spun it with his foot and kicked it into Kenpachi's shin and pushed him off the wall and watched as he fell to the floor.

"Go find someone else to play with." Masuki said coldly and jumped away and disappeared with shunpo.

He appeared further down the road and in front of the massive doors that led to the 1st division headquarters and Captain-Commander Yamamoto. As he moved to open the doors he felt someone appear behind him and turned slowly to face off with the so called genius.

"I guessed you would simply make your way through the front door, you are arrogant enough to do that." Hitsugaya said and ripped his sword from its sheath over his shoulder. "But I can't let you enter there."

"What is it with you bloody captains!" Masuki said as Hitsugaya dashed forward and slashed at him. Masuki turned his body to avoid the attack and then punched Hitsugaya in the chest, throwing him backwards quite the distance before he recovered. "I don't have time to waste with you." He said and focused his reiatsu around Hitsugaya.

Hitsugaya tried to move but the pressure on his shoulders was too much and it was taking all of his effort to simply stay on his feet. _A captain can not be outclassed this much, it is unthinkable! _He thought desperately as he tried to move forward to no avail. The pressure was getting more intense and he was forced to one knee, his blade falling to the ground with a small clatter before being trapped there. He managed to raise his head slightly to face Masuki but as he did, he saw that Masuki was right in front of him and staring into his eyes.

"None of you will survive!" he growled with such conviction that Hitsugaya let himself drop to two knees and bow his head under the pressure of Masuki's reiatsu. "Little genius isn't what people say it seems." He said with a smile and turned back to face the door to his goal. "Now, lets start this properly." He pushed open the door and stepped into the large room, where he looked up to see Yamamoto waiting calmly for him at the end of the hall. He smiled wider and drew his sword slowly. "This is gonna be fun!"

x+x+x+x+x

Kenpachi ripped his own blade from his leg and threw it to the ground, he could follow Masuki if he wanted to but he did not want to; he had to check. He walked forward and tore the wall apart and saw Yachiru lying on the ground in a pool of blood; her own blood. Kenpachi stared wide eyed and stumbled forward before going to his knees at the side of her body. He reached out his hand and touched her face lightly, he could feel then that life was leaving her; but she was not dead.

Her eyes fluttered as he lifted her off the floor and fell back into a sitting position, his back leaning against the wall and Yachiru cradled in his lap.

"Ke…n-chan?" she muttered quietly but Kenpachi didn't reply. He simply looked into space in front of him with one hand on her head and the other by his side. He sat like that until she finally passed away and her body started to disappear as spirit bodies do when killed by a Zanpakuto.

Kenpachi stood up slowly and walked back out to the street and picked up his sword, standing the in centre of the street like a statue. He suddenly reared his head back and roared into the sky, his reiatsu increasing wildly and smashing stone and wood, escaping around the area and going crazy. He then dashed forward and, ignoring walls by simply smashing through them, headed towards the 1st division headquarters and Masuki.

x+x+x+x+x

Sly was stood on the edge of Sokyoku Hill, overlooking the carnage that was bestowed upon Soul Society with their invasion. He could feel the rest of his group's reiatsu around the area but could not find Masuki, though that was not a problem, as he knew Masuki was a genius at hiding his reiatsu. _No doubt he has already gotten to Yamamoto already. _Sly thought as he felt a presence behind him.

He turned and saw that the Captain of the 3rd division and his Vice-Captain had come to fight him and tipped his head to the side.

"How curious that you came to find me…" he said and looked down at Gin, whose grin had not faded. "What a strange boy."

Rose drew his sword and Gin stepped back so that his Captain could fight freely. "Can't leave you running about now." He said and flicked his hair back so that it stayed out of his eyes.

Sly reached to his side and drew his own sword, pointing it at Rose so that he could clearly see the skull shape of his guard and a clue as to what is to come for him after their fight.

_A/N: There we go then, hope you enjoyed that. Bit of a short one for me but I didn't really want to waffle too much so I decided to cut it short. Hope you enjoyed it._

**Next Time:**

**Sly Hitori Vs Rose Otoribashi/Ichimaru Gin! **


	11. Chapter 10: Dance of the Curious One

_A/N: No I haven't given up on this! I wont keep you, read on!_

**Chapter 10 – Dance of the Curious One**

Yamamoto stood like an aging statue at the head of the large rectangular room, he could feel the pain from outside and yet he purposefully did not attempt to help. He knew what was coming; he could feel it in the air, in his very bones. The monster that was on his way to him nearly made the invincible captain shake in fear for the first time in millennia; nearly. The Captain was still confident that he could defeat the intruder and bring Soul Society back to order, once this individual was dead, the other Captains would swiftly deal with his friends.

His hands rested lightly on his wooden cane, ready to react at the appearance of the silver haired demon. His accusing eyes glared unblinking at the door before him and he nearly shivered when he felt the reiatsu outside of the door. A few seconds later the large doors swung inwards and his opponent stepped into what was soon to be the arena for a legendary battle. He walked in and drew his sword, pointing it gleefully at Yamamoto as the doors shut behind him silently.

"This is gonna be fun!" Masuki exclaimed with a grin upon his face. When Yamamoto didn't react, his grin faded and he lowered his sword. "How boring." He said to himself as Yamamoto stepped forward and held his cane up; the end unravelling to reveal the handle of his Zanpakuto.

He quickly unsheathed his sword and threw the useless scabbard away, his fiery reiatsu already leaking out and licking around the blade. He slowly moved to blade so it was face down and stabbed it into the ground roughly, enough so it could stay there without support. Yamamoto shrugged off his white haori and, by crossing his arms beneath his hakama, removed the garment to reveal his battle worn chest. The crisscrossing scars a testament to the many battles he had fought, and won, as the Captain-Commander. His bone like hand reached forward and when it clasped around the handle of his sword, the flames of his reiatsu run along the blade and set the floor around him alight with the flickering lights.

Masuki didn't react to this except with a long low whistle that escaped from his lips. "Truly intimidating." He said before he too, impaled his blade in the ground. He lowered his arms and let his black overcoat slip off and fall to a heap at his heels, before removing his tie and throwing it away. He then, slowly, rolled up each sleeve to above the elbow and cracked his fingers loudly. He reached forward and clasped his own blade, although nothing visibly happened as he pulled it free.

"Reduce the world to ashes, Ryujin Jakka!" Yamamoto called and the room exploded in a fiery rage, the wood splintering and catching alight, while the stone cracked and became slag under the heat of Yamamoto's Zanpakuto.

Masuki stood, unaffected by the blaze, as everything exploded around him. He glanced around and realised that there was a large Kido barrier surrounding the building that the two of them were in. _Bugger, looks like that Tessai wasn't down for the count. But to make a Kido barrier this big that can hold both Yamamoto's and my own reiatsu in without so much as cracking…I seemed to have underestimated him hugely. _He thought quickly as he looked into Yamamoto's eyes without emotion.

"Releasing already..." Masuki said as he swung his sword around loosely "Guess you're going to take this seriously from the start, eh?"

"This is not the time for the idle chatter you like so much, child!" Yamamoto growled as he walked forwards, towards Masuki, his flames circling and growing. "I will simply burn you to ashes."

Yamamoto then swung his sword and a massive blade of flame erupted from the sword, flying forwards towards Masuki. He grinned wildly as he jumped forward, crashing through the flames with no damage and clashing his blade against Yamamoto's.

"Not before I crush you!" he roared with ill controlled anger.

x+x+x+x+x

"I knew joining up with that Silver haired guy was a good idea!" a skinny, blade like hollow said as he jumped on another Shinigami and took a bite out of him. "There are loads of Shinigami here that we can feast on."

"I know, I didn't trust him at first but man, am I glad I changed my mind." This hollow was taller then his friend and covered in wild blue hair that seemed to have a mind of its own.

"Brilliant, mind you…" the hollow suddenly froze and his eyes widened in shock as thin red lines appeared all over his body.

"Dude…" the other one managed before he watched his mate fall into pieces. "What the…?" and then Rose appeared in front of him, his sword thrust through the hollows hairy chest. Another blade came through his back with Sly on the end of it; the blades of the swords stopping each other from moving forwards. They removed their swords and hopped away from each other as the hollow dissolved.

"Why is it that you invade Soul Society?" Rose asked as he drew his sword up into a guard.

"I thought we finished up with the questions earlier?" Sly asked with an eyebrow raised. "Also, what the hell is up with your Vice-Captain? He's creeping me out with that smile of his."

Gin was standing apart from the fight, his eyes seemingly closed and his trademark smile upon his lips. He hadn't done anything since the start of the fight and seemed to be staying out of his Captains way while he fought.

Rose didn't answer but instead started to attack with a series of quick jabs and slashes. Sly countered each one and on the final jab, held Rose's blade down with his own and slashed across, causing sparks to fly from the two swords. Rose leant back to avoid the blow and gently hopped away to avoid any follow up attacks. Sly didn't relent and appeared in front of Rose with astonishing speed, Rose dodging by a hair's breadth and loosing a few in the process. Sly appeared behind Rose and aimed a downward slash but Rose stopped the attack with his own blade without looking. Sly grimaced and then back flipped away onto a nearby wall.

"You're not a Captain for nothing it seems." Sly said as he kept an eye on both Rose and Gin. "When I read your stats I thought you'd be pretty weak but I have been proven wrong."

"You're pretty strong yourself, were you a Shinigami at some point?" Rose asked.

A flare of rage passed across Sly's face but he got it quickly under control. "I have never been one of you kind." He said through clenched teeth, before controlling himself and becoming his usual self. "Masuki found us and trained us, but that is all I can reveal at this point. Maybe if you beat me, I'll tell you more?"

Rose seemed to take to this but he didn't say anything, instead he moved his sword to his right hand and held it behind him. "Play, Kinshara!" he called and whipped his sword in a wide arc. As it flew through the air, the Zanpakuto emanated a golden glow and lengthened dramatically, racing towards Sly. Sly's eyes widened and he narrowly avoided the released whip as it sliced across where his head had been a second before. Sly had ducked to avoid the attack but Rose flicked his wrist and the whip changed direction mid-flight and arced downwards, Sly dodged backwards with shunpo but the flower shape on the end of the whip glanced his forehead opening a small wound. Sly appeared further back with blood started to seep down his face; he wiped it away with the back of his hand and smiled.

"Kinshara…" he said as he looked at the flower tipped golden whip that was now floating around Rose. "A whip-like weapon that is under the complete command of Captain Otoribashi who, with a flick of his wrist, can change the direction of any attack he makes."

Rose's eyes widened in surprise as his opponent told him about his own Zanpakuto, he knew it was well known within the Shinigami but not to outsiders. Sly carried on however and he became even more surprised.

"Special abilities are all musically named and rotate around magic-like explosions that emit from both the main body, and flower tip, of the weapon and are hard placed to block or avoid because of the diameter of the majority of his attacks." Sly looked at Rose with slight amusement at the complete dumbfounded expression on his face. "His favourite attacks being called 'Sonata'" he paused to spin his sword in his hand. "So far, so good?" he asked

"How could you possibly know my Zanpakuto to such detail?" Rose asked with a stunned voice.

"Let's just say we've done our homework." Sly said before rushing forward.

Rose flicked his wrist and his whip shot forward and clashed against Sly's sword stopping him from advancing. It started pushing him back and then, with another wrist movement, lifted Sly into the air and pushed him towards the sky. Sly struggled against the whip but every time he moved to avoid it, Rose would change its direction and stop him getting past. When he was quite high, Rose pulled the hilt close to his face and raised his free hand above the 'blade'.

"Kinshara – Sonata Number Eleven…" he said

Sly realised what he was doing and using Rose's moment of distraction to start his technique, he pushed the rose tip down and flipped over the whip; which continued upwards. His feet landed on the cable and he skidded down it like a ramp before catching his feet and beginning to run towards Rose. Rose realised what he was doing and revised his attack, pulling back on his whip and pulling up at the same time, creating a ripple in his Zanpakuto that travelled up the cable and made Sly wobble precariously.

"Kinshara – Sonata Number Four, Akaakabara!" Rose called as Sly was preoccupied with staying upright. Along the main body of Kinshara were a number of gaps so it looked like it was made up or a number of separate sections, as Rose called his attack the slates opened like the blossoming of a flower and fired off small yellow orbs into the air.

Sly got his balance and made to move forward, only to find a load of yellow orbs floating all around him. He stopped and looked around at the orbs before looking down at Rose.

"Oh bugger." He said as the orbs exploded.

All the floating orbs violently exploded at the same time and the sky above the courtyard where they were fighting was completely filled with the bright flash of an explosion and then it was thick with black smoke. Rose pulled Kinshara back to his side and looked up into the smoke to try and see his opponent.

A couple of seconds passed with nothing happening and then a figure fell out of the sky in a cloud of black smoke. Sly fell, seemingly unconscious, through the sky and crashed into a small shed like building, bringing the majority of the building down around him with the force of his impact. Another couple of seconds passed where there was nothing except the aftermath of Rose's attack in the air and the background noise of other fights happening around Soul Society, and then Sly picked himself off the floor and steadied himself by leaning on his sword.

"Whoa, that was…" but he didn't finish his sentence because an extended blade seemed to appear out of nowhere and Sly only just managed to bring his sword up to block it but was once again lifted off his feet.

The attack clashed with Sly's sword and the force lifted him off his feet and swung him through a wide arc before crashing him through a stone wall; bringing it down around him. Gin then appeared next to rose with his, now retracted, Zanpakuto in his hands.

"I was wondering when you were going to step in Gin." Rose said while watching Sly bring himself to his feet unsteadily.

Gins smile didn't falter as he too watched Sly from his position. "Jus' thought that now as the right time, Cap'n."

Rose didn't continue the conversation but flicked his whip forward and latched the rose tip onto Sly's leg. "Kinshara – Sonata Number Eleven, Izayoi Bara!"

Sly looked down with wide eyes and, in a strange reaction, brought his left hand over his face just as the area exploded. It was loud and bright, and covered a large area; catching Sly right in the centre its explosion.

Once again the courtyard and the adjacent lot, was covered in a bright light and then obscured with a large cloud of black smoke; blocking Rose's and Gin's sight of Sly. A strange reiatsu filled the air and violently banished the smoke away and revealed Sly standing, unharmed, exactly where he had been before. The only difference being that his face was obscured with something.

Both Rose and Gin were stunned, Gin's smile even disappearing momentarily, as they gazed upon Sly's face. His entire head was now covered with a bony white substance with angled slits in the front to allow him to see and a wicked grin of teeth-like shapes carved into the mask itself. It seemed to be made of two halves that connected down the centre of his head with a slight indentation. As the two of them watched in shock, Sly raised his left hand up and touched the mask, seemingly pulling it off and it broke apart before vanishing into the air; the strange reiatsu disappearing as well.

"What in gods name was that?" Rose asked slowly, his eyes staring at Sly's face.

"I'll show it to you later." Sly said quietly before disappearing with shunpo.

Gin and Rose were still in shock when Sly appeared behind them and kicked Rose in the head, sending him flying across the courtyard, and then spun around to punch Gin in the face but finding him standing further back then before out of his reach.

Gin had reacted slightly faster then his captain and as Sly kicked Rose, he used Shunpo to hope backwards and out of Sly's immediate range. He reacted quickly again and fired Shinsou at Sly, who parried the blow away with his own sword but as he started moving towards Gin Rose attacked.

Kinshara appeared beside Sly and wrapped around him twice, pinning his arms to his side before pulling him backwards. He was pulled to the floor by the whip, but he struggled to his knees as Rose approached him. But he had a plan.

"Now then, this fight is over." Rose said as he started to constrict his whip and it started to crush Sly where he knelt. Although he could have probably used his sword to escape it was in the wrong position for him to do anything and the fact that his hands were trapped preventing him from calling forth his mask.

"Guess I have no choice when it comes to fighting a Captain and his second." He muttered as he struggled to stop the whip from breaking his arms. "Show them the meaning of death, Zetsumei Koutetsu."

His sword became a brilliant white light and began to shrink into itself, as the blade completely disappeared leaving the handle; the entire thing seemed to melt and then flit up Sly's arm and then settled over his heart. It pulsed once and then it started to expand until, after a couple of seconds, it completely covered Sly's chest with a thin black membrane like armour as well as a large circular shield that he held in his left hand.

The shield was wider then Sly was and had pushed Kinshara so that it no longer trapped Sly, who used the opportunity to duck out of the constriction and flash over to a nearby boulder that had resulted when Rose blew him up.

The armour was pitch black and seemed to absorb light, leaving no reflection or shininess anywhere. It covered the top half of his chest and then, with a sort of plated style, moved onto a smooth section that covered his abdomen; a slight six pack was carved into the armour. It stopped at his shoulders and his waist, leaving both arms bare and anything below the waist. The only other thing was the large shield he held in his left hand that was connected to his back with two thick black chains. The shield was not completely circular however with a number of deadly looking spikes on the edge of the shield.

Sly used shunpo, moving much faster then he had before, and Rose only just moved Kinshara to protect him as Sly's shield crashed into the golden metal but brushed it aside and crashed into his neck. Blood spurted from Rose's mouth as he stumbled back grasping his throat with his spare hand, coughing and spluttering as he did so.

There was a zing through the air and Sly deflected Gin's Shikai with his shield, sparks flying as the metal clashed, and then tangled it within the chains before Gin could retract it. Gin raised and eyebrow and then his head smashed back as Sly booted him in the face with a flying kick, causing blood to spurt from his nose.

Sly flipped away as Shinsou retracted and then jumped back towards Rose who was on his knees, coughing up blood and yellow specks. As Sly neared he fell back and flicked his wrist and Kinshara flashed through the air and clashed against Sly's shield, bending uselessly around it. Sly then spun around and pulled back his free hand and as he punched forward, his armour shone white and melted again. It moved across his chest and down his bicep before reforming quickly on his forearm; a thick section on top with armoured plates running along the bottom and then formed a metal gauntlet around his fist.

The, now much heavier and deadlier, fist crashed into Rose's chest and threw him backwards and crashed into a wall sending a spider web of cracks shooting around him. As sly lowered his arm, two large bladed spikes formed from the armour on top and reached just in front of his clenched fist.

Sly flashed over to a stunned Gin and aimed a downward strike at his opponent. Gin managed to raise his Wakizashi but Sly out strengthened him, forcing the blade down. Fortunately for Gin, Sly was to far back and the tips of the blades glanced his face; carving two gouges into his face, over his left eye, his nose, the edge of his mouth and then out of his chin. Blood spurted from the wound as well as bits of bone from Gin's jaw which Sly had broken with his attack. Sly spun viciously and as he was about to backhand Gin in the face, Zetsumei Koutetsu reformed on his chest and returned his shield which crashed into Gin's body and flung him across the courtyard.

Sly appeared above the grounded Rose and floating in the air temporarily, and started a kick towards Rose's bared back. As his leg shot downwards, his armour once again liquefied and reformed on his lower again. Once again, thicker armour rested on the front and plated armour ran down the back of his shin, as well as an armoured boot with two small spikes to match. A small knee guard appeared and a larger bladed spike appeared; rising up a third of the way to his waist.

Sly rammed the armoured boot into Rose's spine heel first and the 3rd Division Captain cried out in agony as pain rippled through his body. Sly then pulled him to his feet by his hair and smashed him into the wall, before dropping his hand to his throat, gripping tightly. The armour around his leg jumped up his body and formed around his right hand, the one clutching Rose, and the squeezing became more deadly with the armour surrounding it.

Another zinging through the air and Sly spun around, keeping hold of Rose still, a quick formed his armour around his chest and forming his shield. With skilful positioning, Gin's extended sword passed under Sly's arm and stabbed into Rose's side. Red covered the ground and Rose called out in pain. Sly then disappeared and reappeared above Gin, smashing his head into the ground with the heel of his trainer.

Rose was free now and slumped to the floor, blood pouring from the wound in his side and the internal injury in his throat. He swung his Zanpakuto wide and the entire golden whip encircled the courtyard and then spiralled into the sky before attaching to itself at its peak. The slats in the body opened again and aimed straight at sly, who looked around wildly at his prison.

"Kinshara – Sonata Number Twelve, Odoriibara Ro-Zu!" He called hoarsely.

An uncountable number of small golden thorns rained downwards, heading straight for the surprised Sly. He formed his armour on his chest and raised his shield to block the onslaught of thorns as well as using shunpo in an attempt to dodge. It was all in vain. The thorns followed him around the area and latched onto whatever it touched on his body, including the shield and armour. As each thorn attached itself, a golden line of energy shot back and connected to the encircling golden whip.

Eventually Sly was nearly completely covered and the rain stopped, Sly seemed undamaged but as he relaxed, the energy connecting to the spiral reeled itself in and pulled him to the centre of the circle. He struggled against his binds but could not escape. Rose lifted himself to his feet and moved across to his Zanpakuto. He raised his hand and looked at Sly with nothing in his eyes; then he dropped his hand and twanged the whip.

A guitar strum echoed around the area and the entire capsule, formed by Rose's whip, started to vibrate. Sly cried out in pain and blood started to seep from his ears. This was not the attack though. The lines of energy suddenly bulged and a bead of the same stuff travelled down the lines and the all reached Sly at the same time.

The explosion was enormous, completely covering the courtyard and levelling a majority of buildings that surrounded it. However big the explosion, it seemed not to harm anyone that Rose did not want hurt; the large quantities of Shinigami in the area struggling unharmed out of the smoke. Although tripping and falling over the not-so-lucky buildings and walls.

Rose moved slowly through the clearing smoke and nearly fell over Sly's body that lay in the centre of the courtyard. He was laying spread eagled on his back and his right side was covered in rocks. A number of burn marks and scorches covered Sly's body and a majority of his clothes and completely burned off; leaving only tattered blue jeans and trainers that looked more like sandals now. His mouth was agape and a thin streak of blood had trickled out and made a small pool by the side of his head.

Rose sighed and started to look around for Gin but sensed a sudden movement from Sly's direction and spun to see his eyes had snapped open and was gazing at the sky. Rose's eyes widened and he jumped backwards, pointing his now sealed sword at the sky. It exploded into the whip form and shot into the sky at an amazing speed.

"BANKAI!"

The whip ripped itself from Rose's grasp and flew into the sky, as it rose higher and higher it started to writhe and swirl before ballooning to strange proportions. It ripped itself apart and revealed that inside the whip were cogs, levers, ropes and pulleys, as well as other such things. All the insides swirled into a vortex and grew and multiplied, clanking together and starting to form something new; something massive. As the cogs and such reached a certain size, the gold plating the covered his whip appeared again and started to slide over the insides, creating a hardened skin. Eventually the Zanpakuto formed a massive animal and it started circling towards the ground again, spinning like the vortex that had created it.

It shot downwards and crashed into the floor, its front claw crashing around Rose, and the rest of it settling behind and crushing buildings with its massive body. The Chinese style dragon roared with wide jaws and the sound reverberated around the whole of Soul Society and shook the foundations of its earth.

"Hatashinai Kinshara." Rose said quietly and looked at Sly.

Hatashinai Kinshara was essentially a massive, golden, mechanically built Chinese dragon. It was massive, easily dwarfing the buildings around it and making the Shinigami look like ants. Across the golden surface of its skin were some large cogs and as it moved, these spun and showed its movements clearly; the most notable being the ones either side of its jaw showing when it was about to roar. Its eyes were a fiery red and its four whiskers took the form of his Shikai; long whips with flower-like tips.

"Hatashinai Kinshara…" Sly started and stared up at the massive monster that stood before him. "It's much, much, bigger then I thought it would be."

He re-released his sword and formed it across his chest just as the dragon raised a clawed foot and swung downwards. Sly raised his shield over his head and it took the force of the swipe head on; crushing Sly completely into the ground. When it slowly raised it again, only the top of Sly's shield could be seen. It wobbled slightly and Sly pulled himself out of his body-shaped hole and wobbled around.

"Holy crap." He stated as he raised his left hand to his face. "Lucky you, you get to see my little trick again." He said and looked into Rose's eyes.

His fingers touched his face and slowly slid down, rubbing across his bare skin. As he did, white bone started to from over his head and by the time he was touching his chin his mask was completely formed; complete with slit eyeholes and a wicked crack-grin.

"I figured out what that mask is now…" Rose said as Sly started to emit a strange mixed reiatsu. "Pairing it with the evil reiatsu that just appeared in the air, I would say that that is some sort of hollow mask; but I don't know how you got it."

"Let's just say you Shinigami are nothing compared to us." Sly said but along with his normal voice, a raspy rough voice spoke the same words at the same time; giving him a dual sounding voice.

Sly's body seemed to vibrate and then he suddenly appeared above the dragons head, actually leaving an outline of his body where he had been standing milliseconds before. He dropped down and with and armoured fist smashed it into the dragons head with an almighty crash. The whole dragon's body seemed to flex and its head crashed into the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust. Sly then ran down its neck dragging his claws across the golden skin and then jumped into the air. He started to flip over and dropped back down, crashing an armoured foot into the dragons back just as it was getting up.

The dragon roared and crashed into the ground again, Rose narrowly avoiding being crushed by his own sword. Sly started to run towards the head again and as he was about to jump off the snout there was a flash of gold and he exploded. One of the whip whiskers had ignited but thanks to his mask he was relatively unharmed. As he dived off a golden claw appeared above him and smashed down, bouncing him off the floor. As he floating it swiped again and this time sent him tumbling into the air.

Sly spun wildly in the air and struggled to control himself as he flew higher and higher. A large crack appeared across his mask and he removed it like he did before with his left hand. _Still can't keep it on too long then it seems. _He thought as he flew. Because Soul Society was a spirit world, Shinigami can't use the Reiryoku to walk on the air and this was the same for Sly as well; so he had to endure flying.

Eventually he reached an apex and started his descent, this time in control, and aimed to fall on top of the massive dragon that, even from Sly's height, could easily be seen.

"I suppose I better make things more equal, it'll take far to long simply with Shikai." He muttered to himself as he fell. He noticed then that Hatashinai Kinshara had taken off and was now moving quite rapidly towards him.

"BANKAI!"

Zetsumei Koutetsu, which Sly had formed into his chest piece as he was thrown upwards, once again lit up and melded across his body but this time it covered his entire body; save his head. Completely covering his body, his Zanpakuto looked like some sort of futuristic medieval armour. However, it did not stop here. As he fell the armour ballooned outwards and Sly disappeared within its folds as it grew and grew and grew. It kept on growing, with pieces of the armour gaining more external protection, until it was close in size to the dragon; a rider to his horse.

As it stopped growing a sphere enclosed its head and created a helmet, strikingly similar to his hollow mask he had shown. The main difference being the lack of teeth and a long single visor made up the eyepiece. Like with his Shikai armour, each arm had two large spikes on them as well as each foot and a single spike grew from his knees. A larger version of his circular shield was now strapped to the giants back with long black chains attached to its elbows.

"Tairei Zetsumei Koutetsu." Sly's voice echoed around from the inside of his giant armour. His voice was lost, however, in the rushing of wind as the massive body fell towards an impending impact with the golden mechanical dragon.

The two crashed with an almighty impact akin to that of an asteroid crashing into earth, shockwaves of air spiralling around them. The two started to spin as Sly crashed fist after fist into the dragons nose, small cogs and levers spraying out as if blood. The dragon spun and curled, wrapping its long body around the armour and trying to crush it like a Boa. This Aerial battle lasted a couple of seconds before the two monsters crashed into the ground and levelled even more of Sereitei.

Sly had managed to manoeuvre the dragon so it hit the ground first and hit it, it did. The metal skin started to flake and it writhed on the ground as if in mortal agony. It roared loudly and then was silenced as Sly rammed a fist into its mouth and halfway down its throat. It wiggled and wriggled but couldn't escape. Sly then used his free arm and clasped the dragon's bottom jaw to stop it from biting his arm off and also to finish it. With a mighty roar and display of strength, Sly pulled down sharply and ripped the bottom jaw completely free; raining the ground with cogs and wires. He then violently rotated his hand and split its head into three with his claws and from the inside out.

At this vicious attack, the dragon stopped moving and slumped into the ground; before it started shaking and falling apart bit by bit. Eventually it was nothing more then a mechanical carcass and Rose was left standing deserted in the centre; his sword completely beaten.

Sly reached down, faster then his armour looked like it could, and swiftly enclosed Rose within one of his giant fists. He lifted it up to its head height and revealed that Rose's top half was showing with only one of his arms free. Sly squeezed gently and he cried out in pain as blood seeped from his wounds and spat from his mouth. With a little more pressure there was a sharp cracking noise and Rose screamed loudly as both his legs and his hips were practically crushed to dust.

Rose's breathing was now laboured, blood poured openly from his mouth, and his eyes looked completely dead. The massive armour stopped moving completely and became like a stone statue; unmoving. There was a hiss and then its helmet opened via a vertical line down the helmet, opening to reveal Sly climbing up and then sitting on the edge of the neck guard.

"Sorry, Captain, usually I am much more gentle then this. It's quite unusual for me." Sly said. "But in comparison to what some of my friends would do to you it's quite tame, actually."

Rose didn't reply and also didn't notice as the ground got closer because of the fact that Sly's armour was now shrinking. When it got within reasonable distance, Sly slid off his Zanpakuto and landed lightly on the floor. He then grasped the front of Rose's shirt as his armour completely disappeared before appearing as armour on his free arm.

He gripped Rose tightly and then rammed his spiked fist into Rose's stomach, adding to the many wounds that covered his body. He then did it again, and again, and again; and he kept doing it until his fist was a blur. He stopped and Rose was now all but dead, as he dropped him and he slumped to his knees and stopped there. Sly re-sealed his sword and held his katana aloft.

With a flash of silver and a spurt of blood, he decapitated Rose.

Sly then cried out in pain as the tip of as sword appeared out of his right shoulder with the sound of a zing. Without really looking he spun, freeing himself from the blade, and threw his own sword and great speed. It found its mark, burying itself in the centre of Gin's forehead, the end sticking out the back. The Vice-Captain's face was frozen in death; his mouth frowning and his ice blue eyes open in shock. He fell back with a light thud and Sly moved slowly across to him and pulled his sword free.

He moved to sheath his sword and only then seemed to realised that he was only dressed in the tattered remains of his jeans, which were now quite short. He frowned and then shrugged his shoulders before dashing off across Sereitei.

_A/N: Wo~wie that was a good un. So the first fight ends with the loss going to Soul Society and Masuki's team now in the lead. What will happen in coming chapters, you will have to read to find out._

_Terribly sorry about the uber long delay in the release of this chapter, I forgot to mention that I was going to be out for two weeks doing 'research'…kidding! Lol. I was out for a week on an RAF base and then I did a re~ally long walk for Help For Heroes for a week and then I was going to originally release two chapters for this fight but decided I waffled far too much in them and condensed it into a single chapter of awesomeness! I hope you agree. I just have some things to say about the chapter – _

_First of all Rose's Shikai (Kinshara) is fairly self explanatory in the manga/anime and I hope it was clear how it worked in this chapter as well. Obviously I had to invent some moves for him so here are the translations for his Shikai powers:_

_Sonata #4 Akaakabara – Bright Rose_

_Sonata #11 Izayoi Bara – Sixteen Day-Old Moon Rose (Canon from the manga)_

_Sonata #12 Odoriibara Ro-Zu – Dance of the Thorny Rose_

_Hatashinai Kinshara (Rose's Bankai) – Everlasting Golden Sal Tree; the reason I named it as such was because I couldn't really think of anything and decided that it sounded cool. As for why it was a giant mechanical Chinese dragon…Really it was because that was the coolest Idea that I came up with (outta hundreds!) hope you guys liked it._

_As for Sly, all credit goes to Shadowjohn101 for the uberness of his character. As for translations on his sword, I can't remember if he sent me the translations but I think I figured it out,_

_Zetsumei Koutetsu – Life Ending Armour; I pretty sure it translates to something close to that anyway and it sounded cool written like that._

_Tairei Zetsumei Koutetsu – The Great Spirit of Life Ending Armour; A slight deviation from the translation you gave me SJ but hopefully you don't mind the slight change. _

_Well, I hoped you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it, Read & Review please. Ta!_

**Chapter 11 – Shark and Ogre equals Shog?**


	12. Chapter 11: Shark & Ogre equals Shog?

_A/N: Sorry for uber delay people, things came up but then things went down so all is cool. Hopefully there won't be such a massive delay between this one and the next chapter but unfortunately I cannot promise anything. Don't give up on me yet though…in fact never give up with me as I will never give up on this story; no matter how long it takes._

**Chapter 11 – Shark and Ogre equals Shog?**

"Bah, this is starting to irritate me!" Taiki said as he casually ripped an arm off of an attacking Shinigami. The Shinigami screamed as blood poured from the wound but was silenced by Taiki's fist smashing him in the face.

Taiki was strolling lightly down one of the main streets of Sereitei and was beating attacking Shinigami away with his bare hands. Every Shinigami he killed ended up beaten and broken and the path behind Taiki was literally covered completely with the blood of his enemies and Shinigami ripped into various sized pieces. Another Shinigami swung wildly but his blade snapped uselessly against Taiki's muscled side and then was lifted into the air before being ripped in half.

"All these guys are weak!" he cried as he picked up another Shinigami and slammed him into the ground, creating cracks across the stone. "Weak, weak, weak, weak!" he cried while slamming a fist into the Shinigami with each repetition of the word. The Shinigami ended up as nothing more but a blood smear on the ground.

"You want someone strong!" Someone called and Taiki spun around to face someone even taller then he was, about twice the size, which caused a look of anger to contort his face. "I, Ritamoto Gouresei, will show you the meaning of strength!" and he raised his weapon, a massive four-headed hammer, high above his head.

Ritamoto swung down with immense force and the ground exploded into chips of stone and dust. With a look of triumph on his face, Ritamoto moved to lift his weapon but found that he could not. "What the…" he said before his face exploded in a shower of blood.

The dust cleared to show Taiki unharmed and his hand grasping the head of the hammer with no strain at all. In his other hand was a large rock, indicating why Ritamoto's face was now injured. Ritamoto roared loudly and attempted to squash Taiki with his massive foot; only to have Taiki fling the rock into his knee, causing it to snap sideways with the force.

Taiki's face and returned to its bored state as he flicked the hammer into the air and then caught the handle, spinning rapidly and crashing it into the side of its owners face. The giant toppled over and lay on the floor motionless, having felt the wrath of Taiki.

Taiki turned back to face the centre of Sereitei and glanced up at the massive white tower that stood there and scowled. He suddenly realised that no-one was attacking him anymore and he glanced around to see that a large amount of them had surrounding him and were holding their swords in a guard position across their bodies. He looked around and just as he was about to move a voice rose from behind the crowd.

"Stay back, this monster from hell will fall to my blade and my blade alone."

Taiki growled as the crowd parted in front of him and a Shinigami stepped into the circle with him. Taiki towered over him, like most people, but he only had a look of disdain on his face. He had dark brown coloured hair that was braided and strung back into a pony tail with two single bangs on each side of his face. His skin was darker then most and his eyes were milked over. He wore normal Shinigami garb except for the sleeves, which were rolled up to his shoulders, white boots on his feet, and an orange scarf around his neck which hung down his shoulders. Finally, he wore a large purple sash around his waist, where his Zanpakuto hung from, and large transparent goggles.

He stepped forward and swiftly drew his sword and held it one handed, in front of him. "People such as yourself, who cause blood shed wherever they go, must be removed from this world. I cannot allow you to continue down this path."

Taiki laughed out loud and wiped a tear from his eye. "That's funny, Shinigami." He said before his voice returned to its normal growl. "Who are you to speak this way?"

"I am 3rd seat of the 9th division, Kaname Tousen!" Tousen said before rushing forward and thrusting his sword at Taiki with gusto.

Taiki intended to let the blade break against his skin but at the last minute his hand shot forward and grabbed the blade, stopping it from advancing into his stomach. A thin sliver of blood leaked from his hand and ran down Tousen's blade.

"Not bad, you can actually make me bleed." Taiki grinned and then threw Tousen to the side and drew his pair of Tanto that was his Zanpakuto. "But now you get to taste my excitement!" He roared and charged forward.

Tousen recovered fast enough that he deflected the barrage of attacks that rained down on him, but his guard physically shook at the force of the blows. His sword hand shook violently with each blow and eventually he fell to his knees. As Taiki arced down with a finishing blow, Tousen rolled forward, around Taiki's leg, and came to one knee. He switched his sword to a reverse grip and thrust backwards.

Taiki roared and stepped away from Tousen with one large step and turned to face him, one hand raised in front of him, the other clutching his buttocks.

"You little Shinigami scum!" he roared as blood seeped between his fingers. "You went and speared my god damn buttocks!" he glared at Tousen, who rose to his feet, and ground his teeth together. "You're going to pay for that."

He ignored the wound in his buttocks now and rushed forward again. Tousen seemed not to react but at the last second he lurched out of the way and spun to Taiki's back, stabbing high but hitting air. Taiki had ducked to avoid the blow and now rolled forward, a massive boot crashing into Tousen's chin as he did and making him bite his own tongue; blood leaked from between Tousen's teeth as he clenched them against the pain.

Before Tousen could recover, Taiki dashed forward again and landed a massive head butt, massive in both size and force, to Tousen's forehead; spraying more blood across the floor and sending his opponent sprawling backwards into the surrounding Shinigami, the Shinigami helping Tousen stay upright.

"Pretentious Prick." Taiki said as he shook his head wildly and grinned from ear to ear.

"I guess you are stronger then I imagined, for someone who follows the path of blood." Tousen said, having shaken off the disorientation Taiki's attack had caused. "But now I will truly end your reign."

He spun his sword around and held it at his hip as though sheathed, and pulled it slightly outwards; as if unlocking it from his scabbard. "Cry, Suzumushi." He said, so quietly it was almost to himself.

"Ping."

The high pitched ring echoed around the area and, invisible to all but Tousen, a sphere of reiatsu expanded from his sword and grew in size until in covered about a football field. It didn't stop here on its own however, as Tousen clicked the sword back into its imaginary scabbard and the sound died away; however, the results of the release were immediate.

The surrounding Shinigami all cried out as one and dropped their swords, clutching their hands to their ears to no avail as the ringing resonated from Tousen's Zanpakuto. They all fell, some to both knees, some to just one and some all the way to the floor; which is where they all ended up eventually. The only one who didn't fall was the gigantic Taiki that stood before Tousen like a statue.

He didn't move as the sound passed over him but he clenched his teeth as his whole body vibrated with the attack. His eyes crossed and his vision doubled in front of him, and blood trickled from the inside of his ear. As the noise hit his Zanpakuto they also starting ringing like a pair of tuning forks, vibrating so much they fell from his hands to the floor with a light touch. When the ringing stopped he swayed once but stayed upright and his vision returned to normal, he glanced down at his Tanto and looked perplexed as to how they ended up on the floor. He looked up again and saw Tousen rushing towards him with his sword held aloft.

The attack came swinging in, with the intent to remove Taiki's head but he regained his senses at the last second and leant backwards; causing the blade to glide harmlessly through the air where his head had been a second before. Without delay he charged Tousen and delivered a savage blow to his stomach, knocking the wind, as well as mucus and blood, out of him. Tousen stumbled back in pain as Taiki reached down and retrieved his Zanpakuto, spinning them on his fingers as he did so.

Taiki let a low growl escape from his lips as he advanced menacingly on Tousen "That was some whiz-kid attack there, but looks like it didn't work on me. I'm not like you weak Shinigami that fall at the slightest provocation!"

Taiki, once again charged, but just as he was about to attack Tousen he suddenly disappeared and left Tousen coughing up dust. He appeared behind his foe and swung his blades down, ramming them into Tousen's shoulders. Tousen screamed in pain and Taiki pulled backwards, ripping through muscle and flesh to do so. Blood spurted wildly from the wounds and Taiki was covered from head to toe with it. Tousen fell to his knee's, his arms now uselessly hanging from his shoulders by mere strands of flesh, and coughed up more blood onto the ground.

Taiki grinned and slipped his Tanto back into their scabbards, freeing his hands to take a hold of Tousen's wrists. Tousen screamed with pain as his arms moved, but this scream was deafened by his second as Taiki lifted him into the air, placed a knee against Tousen's back and pulled. His arms came off without a struggle and he fell to the floor, flopping like a fish to get his feet under him; blood coming out of him by the gallon.

Tousen somehow struggled to his feet, and as he turned to flee he received a massive fist to his face as a reward. The goggles smashed and bits of glass flew into his eyes as the punch lifted him vertically into the air. He floated momentarily before Taiki grabbed an ankle and swung him into the ground with enough force to make a small crater.

By this point Tousen was already practically dead, but the ragged noise from his throat showed he was still breathing so Taiki stomped on him and pressed down with his massive foot. He then reached across and picked up Tousen's own sword and held it high above him.

"Screw you." He said before swinging down and impaling Tousen through the centre of his neck. The attack was followed by a quiet gurgling and bubbles of blood escaping the wound before everything falling silent and Taiki standing in a pool of his enemy's blood. He looked around casually and picked a direction, stomping off and crashing through a wall, catching a blade just as it was about to behead him.

x+x+x+x+x

"Woohahahahahaha!"

The laugh came fast and high pitched as blood cart wheeled all over the place, Shinigami losing limbs as fast as they could blink or try and defend themselves. A lone figure stood in the centre of advancing Shinigami and he was spinning like a top, a flash of silver showing that a blade was cutting back and forth through the fray. Shinigami cried out as they lost a hand, an arm, a leg, their heads, and the ones that tried to flee this tornado of death suffered an even worse fate.

Rokurou appeared above a fleeing Shinigami and, because he was upside down in the air, looked into the eyes of his enemy and saw his favourite thing in a foe; Pure, unbridled fear. His grin widened some more and his blade flashed forward to pierce through the mans forehead before being completely cut in half by the malignant spirit.

He rotated through the air and landed on the ground with all fours, his sword in his right hand laying flat across the dusty ground. He looked up at the Shinigami and saw that most of them were now hesitant to move towards him and he was between them and the only exit to the large street they were in. He clicked his tongue and before any of them could react, he and shot forward like a striking snake and appeared in the centre of the group.

They all turned with alarm and within seconds the majority of them and been cut in half or lost their heads. Rokurou laughed hysterically as he moved around in the storm of blood that whirled around him and stained his, usually black, track suit. Eventually he was the only one left standing and he jumped up to sit on the wall behind him, the blood plastered the walls and floor and it looked like someone had thrown a bucket of red paint over the street; Rokurou knew better and laughed because of it.

As he lounged on the wall and brought his legs up so his knees were at head height, a small figure appeared at the end of the street and started to walk towards him. He could see from a distance that it was a girl and this made him hesitate, he was weak to the charms of women, young or old. The girl shuffled forward and stopped at the base of the wall and looked up at Rokurou with an unreadable face.

Rokurou paused a second longer before a felt a brief surge of bloodlust and dropped down towards the girl with his blade swinging. At the last second the girl disappeared and reappeared on the wall where he had been a second before. A second passed and suddenly he was surrounded by a large number of men who were all dressed identically, black clothes with masks that covered their faces. Rokurou looked up with his shark tooth grin and started moving when a voice spoke out.

"Ah, dear enemy of Soul Society, it is a sorry day for you to fall upon my territory in this war for you shall move no further."

Rokurou looked around to see a rather large man, in more ways then just being slightly tall, standing behind a row of the Onmitsukido. He was rather fat, had hair that stuck up on the top of his head in a single spike and long side burns, balding and a very square head. He wore normal Shinigami garb except for a large purple fluffy collar and plenty of expensive looking jewellery.

"Looks like some fatty came to try and fight me." Rokurou said and held his Zanpakuto aloft. "But you're going to lose."

Without waiting for a reply he shot forward and leaped into the air, straight at Omaeda, who panicked and turned to run. The Onmitsukido moved to intercept Rokurou but were instantly cut down with quick flashes of a sword. Omaeda tripped over and fell on his face, turning over onto his back to beg for his life.

"Please! Don't kill me, I can give you money, I can give you anything you like." He squeaked as he tried crawling away.

Rokurou didn't reply and span forward to decapitate his opponent, but his sword clashed against concrete, the fat 3rd seat no where in sight.

"Hahahaha, you think someone like you stands a chance against an Onmitsukido captain! You skinny weakling."

Rokurou growled and shot forward again, only to have Omaeda outmanoeuvre him with surprising speed. Rokurou ran forward and launched a spinning attack and this time sliced into Omaeda's arm, a small drop of blood leaking out.

"Lily!" he called out and dropped off the wall and crashed into the ground onto his back. Rokurou jumped forward and roared as he aimed to pierce Omaeda through the head but was thrown off course by a powerful force smashing into his side and sending him cascading into the wall.

The wall exploded in a plume of dust and rock and a low growl emanated from the shadow. Rokurou picked himself up off the floor and stepped out into the light again, a small trickle of blood sliding down the side of his face. He instantly honed in on the one who had attacked him and saw that it was the small girl from before. She stood at a tiny height, barely coming up to Rokurou's knees, and her Shinigami robe swathed her in fabric. Her black hair was cut astonishingly short and her eyes shone a bright green. In her left hand she held a Ninjaken sword in contrast to the majority of Shinigami's katana. She was staring at Rokurou with venom of such intensity that it put the black widow to shame.

"Hehehe…" Omaeda chuckled as he picked himself off the floor and moved behind the small girl. "You're gonna lose now, I'd like you to meet my personal guard; Lily Vandervitch."

The girl suddenly disappeared and Rokurou jerked his head to the side to avoid a fatal blow, the blade of her sword passing high across his cheek and cutting the top of his ear off. He roared in pain and swung around, his sword whistling through the air at the tiny woman but the metal clashed with stone once again as Lily appeared behind him. His grin appeared back on his face as he slowly moved forward and once again swung wildly at her. Yet again, Lily disappeared but as she did so, Rokurou's free hand shot out and grabbed her around the throat. She struggled to break free but couldn't do so, quickly losing consciousness and then dropping her weapon when Rokurou broke her neck with a violent twist of his hand.

Rokurou laughed loudly and turned back to face Omaeda but as he turned a massive blow struck him in the side of the head and took him off his feet, once more making him fly across the street and into the same wall as before. He stood up with an angry roar and turned to Omaeda, blood flowing from his head.

"I'm going to rip you into shreds and then cut your shreds into shreds, you got that!" he growled. Omaeda didn't reply but instead dropped his released Zanpakuto onto the ground, the large spiked ball controlled by him from a chain leading to the handle of his sword which was in his hand. He flicked his wrist and the large ball shot forward to strike Rokurou, but he dodged it and clasped the sphere in his large spider like hand.

He laughed again and crushed the ball into dust, the large spikes falling to the ground harmlessly. Omaeda screamed and moved to run but Rokurou grabbed the chain and skilfully manipulated the chain to wrap around his ankle. Omaeda tripped and fell onto his face, his hands clawing at the ground as Rokurou slowly reeled him in. Rokurou lifted him off the ground and Omaeda threw a sloppy punch in an attempt to free himself but it didn't work. Rokurou smiled and kneed him in the stomach before throwing him into the air.

As Omaeda floated, Rokurou grabbed the chain once more and jumped into the air as well, and began spinning like a tornado. The long chain whipped around him and lashed out now and again, slipping around a part of Omaeda's body. First on leg, then the other, then an arm, then the other and as the two landed on the ground a final length of chain wrapped itself around his neck. Omaeda was now completely immobilised by his own weapon. A length of chain ran away from his body and rested in Rokurou's hand.

With a single sharp laugh, Rokurou tugged sharply on the chain and it tightened around Omaeda's plump body. He couldn't even scream as the chains dug deep and eventually sliced through him completely; splashing the area with blood and littering the floor with pieces of his body. Rokurou carried on his maniacal laugh and then ran past the body, slicing through it with his own blade until there was nothing but slithers of pink and black splattered across the floor.

Just as he was about to run off, the wall next to him exploded and as the rocks and dust covered the area, he spun rapidly and his sword whizzed through the air before colliding with something very solid. Rokurou looked down and saw that a very large hand grasped his blade and through the touch of his sword he could instantly tell who it was.

"Taiki." He growled as the larger, but smaller, man stepped into the street.

x+x+x+x+x

"Well, look who showed up." Taiki rumbled as he dropped the naked blade and blood dripped to the floor as the taller Rokurou stepped away from him. Taiki looked around and noticed the blood soaked stones. "Guess you've been having about as much fun as I have with these weak losers." He said as he crouched down and poked a lump of flesh that used to be Omaeda. "Where are all the bloody Captains that are meant to be floating around, I haven't so much as felt their reiatsu yet…"

As he said this there was a massive explosion of reiatsu in the distance and a blinding light seemed to shroud the whole of Soul Society. Rokurou and Taiki looked across and saw an enormous golden dragon appear.

"Well, seems I spoke to soon." Taiki said with a grin "I wonder which one of us was lucky enough to bump into a captain then…" and, again as if on cue, a potent reiatsu revealed itself and the dragon was crushed into the ground. "Ahh, the bugger Sly got a Captain first. Maybe I'll go join in."

Taiki started moving off but as he took his first step a ringing sound filled the air and something appeared from behind a wall and crashed into Taiki, sending him flying backwards. Rokurou turned in surprise and took a tornado of fire to his face as a reward, also throwing him backwards, where he landed across from Taiki. The fire disappeared, and the object that hit Taiki withdrew as two Shinigami appeared around the corner; trapping the two giants into the alleyway, albeit with the walls crushed either side of them.

"Oh, I know you two…" Taiki growled as he stood up and shook his head, before drawing his Zanpakuto and holding them loosely in his hands. "You're the assholes that I crushed back in the real world, you coming for seconds?" he asked.

Neither Hisagi nor Kira replied but instead took another step forward, towards their new opponents. Hisagi held Kazeshini loosely, one of his kusarigama like weapons was hanging by his side and the other was resting lightly on his shoulder; the long chain that connected them resting along the floor. Kira's Wabisuke was held in his right hand and the square head was pointing at the ground.

"You know these guys, Taiki?" Rokurou asked as he also picked himself off the ground and stretched off, his sword swinging high into the air.

"Yeah, the guy on the left throws his weapon like a fan and manipulates it with the chains and blondie on the right increases the weight of your weapon two-fold with each hit." Taiki said as the smile on his face got wider. "I've got blondie!" he roared and rushed forward brandishing his Tanto.

As he got close, however, Hisagi reacted and flung his weapon forward, the blade barely missing Taiki as he stopped quickly and leant back. Kazeshini embedded itself in the wall and the chain was tugged taut by Hisagi, Taiki's large muscular body now bent back awkwardly because of it. Rokurou took the moment and also rushed forward, his long body low and his sword held aloft. Kira jumped into the air, landed on Hisagi's chain and used it as a springboard to shoot towards Rokurou, his sword dragging behind.

Kira and Rokurou clashed with sparks flying as Rokurou blocked the blade attack with his own, reflected Kira away from him and throwing him over his head. However, the clash with Wabisuke had taken its effect and Rokurou was brought to the ground with the weight of his sword taking him by surprise.

As this happened, Hisagi pulled his weapon back to him with a sharp tug of his chain and Taiki had to spin to avoid having his head sliced off. Although the blade nicked his cheek and a small trickle of blood ran down his face.

"It seems you've gotten stronger. When we fought last time, your sword couldn't penetrate my skin." Taiki growled as he wiped the blood away with the back of his hand.

"When in the real word, Captains, Vice-Captains and 3rd seats have their powers limited to avoid affected the world around them when they fight."

"Ahh, Kenpachi told me something to that affect when I was fighting him. At least this means you'll be more fun then everyone else I've faced so far." He then turned away from Hisagi and looked at Rokurou and snorted. "Down on your knees already? That's pretty pathetic."

Rokurou's grin slid of his face and he turned to face Taiki with venom in his eyes. "I don't think so…" he whispered and then roared as he pulled his sword off the ground and raised it high into the air. "Writhe in glee, Kasuri Jashuu!" he called and his Zanpakuto exploded with a large amount of chains that slithered from his grip and started to wrap themselves around his body.

When they stopped moving it showed that Rokurou now sported a pair of metal gauntlets that rose just below the elbow and a pair of metal boots that stopped just below the knee. The gauntlets had two spikes on them and a chain led from them to his back where a small backpack like object held them, the same were true for his boots where chains ran up to the part on his back. He took a step forward and a mechanical noise sounded as the blades spun once and locked onto each other, forming the shape of an anchor, and then dropped to the floor, chains leading off it to his wrists and then to his back.

As he laughed out loud, Hisagi threw his weapon and the spinning blade passed close to Rokurou's head by missed by inches. Rokurou reacted by swinging his wrist out and the anchor shaped blade shot forward and stabbed into Hisagi's shoulder. Hisagi cried out and then another mechanical noise sounded and the chain started to reel in, the loose chain disappearing into the metal backpack. Hisagi gripped his chain and pulled himself towards Rokurou, removing the blade from his shoulder as he did so. As he got within an arms reach of the skinny giant, he spun in the air and swung his other weapon in an attempt to pierce him through the forehead.

Rokurou easily avoided the blow and spun savagely, his wrist blades spinning with him and creating a vortex of chains and blades. Hisagi raised his weapon to defend himself but it was only vital parts he managed to prevent injury to. Small cuts appeared over his body and eventually he was thrown over the wreckage of the wall and into a new area.

As this happened, Taiki also took action; raising his Tanto into the air and pointed them away from each other so that the hilts of the weapons were facing each other. "I don't have to hold back now…" he said and slammed the weapons together with a wild increase in reiatsu. "Test your metal, Zoushi!" he roared and the two blades connected with each other and extended into a long shaft, and then growing a large head to transform it into a double headed hammer. It changed colour to a dark grey and a spider web of cracks radiated over the entire weapon. A series of red triangles covered the shaft like teeth.

He slammed his foot into the ground and shoot forward with his new hammer held high. Kira's eyes widened in surprise and he barely dodged the attack as it swung above his head, crashing into a wall and completely demolishing it. He attacked with his own sword and managed two attacks to the shaft of the hammer before having to roll away. When he was back on his feet, he looked across at Taiki and was surprised to find him standing there with the hammer resting on his shoulder as if there was nothing different.

"Not so tough now are you, blondie. Your ability won't affect me while I have my Zanpakuto released." Taiki said with a wild grin.

"What…what can your Zanpakuto do?" Kira asked timidly, but with nothing in his eyes to suggest it.

"Oh nothing, it just that I've trained with this thing for countless hours and I can lift massive weights." He said before running forward and swinging an attack.

As Kira moved to dodge it, Taiki kicked out and caught him into the stomach, sending him flying and crashing into the wall before sliding to the floor. Taiki then stomped forward again and raised his hammer high before dropping it like a guillotine. Kira raised his own blade to block the attack but wasn't quick enough as the hammer crashed into his forearm.

Unlike a clean cut a blade would have made the hammer exploded with a shockwave and tore his arm to pieces, leaving him with a bloody stump coming out from his shoulder. Kira cried out in pain and looked down at his arm with despair, blood spurting out of it with the beating of his heart. He was breathing heavy and lamely trying to stop the bleeding with his intact hand. Taiki stood back and laughed derisively at his bloody opponent, his hammer resting on his shoulder.

"Seems like third seats are nothing special in Soul Society, I better go and find me a captain of Vice-Captain to fight or I'm going to die of boredom." Taiki muttered as he turned away from Kira with a sniff. "I suppose I better finish this fool off first though." And he spun fast, swinging his hammer which smashed into Kira's side and he exploded like a bomb had been planted in him. His bloody bits rained down from the sky and Taiki sealed his hammer back into its separate Tanto's before slipping them back into their scabbards.

"ROAR, TENKEN!"

Taiki looked up and saw a massive sword being held by a disembodied arm of similar proportions and wasn't fast enough to block it as it crashed into his chest and flung him through walls and buildings before he came to rest in a large open area with a single figure stood in it. He coughed up some blood before standing up and realising he know had a large gash across his chest, which was bleed profusely. He shrugged and then looked up at the figure that had approached and drawn a sword.

The man was tall, nothing next to Taiki but still tall, and was sporting a large afro with dark glasses that covered his eyes. "I am Love Aikawa, Captain of the Seventh Division."

x+x+x+x+x

Hisagi rolled over and managed to jump back to his feet as the anchor shaped blade once more fired at him, but this time he managed to dodge it and jump out of the way. Rokurou appeared out of the dust and raced forward, spinning as he did so and sending a barrage of attacks Hisagi's way.

Hisagi blocked the attacks and threw one of his own, one of his scythe weapons flying through the air but missing the giant once again. Rokurou laughed loudly and grabbed the scythe, pulling Hisagi towards him with it. Hisagi struggled but couldn't stop Rokurou as he lifted him high and wrapped his own chains around his neck.

"Looks like you can't do anything to me, little man." He sneered and laughed again as he slowly tightened the chains, choking Hisagi.

Hisagi resisted but eventually his weapons dropped to the ground and he was on the edge of consciousness when he felt the chains loosen and he dropped to the ground, his Zanpakuto returning to its sealed state. He groggily looked around but could no longer see his opponent.

"Isane, tend to Hisagi-san's wounds. I will draw my sword to prevent him from causing any more damage."

_A/N: And there we have it, the end of the mini-fights. Unfortunately I had to remove some coolness to keep it within my limit but I hope you still enjoyed it. Read & Review please!_

**Next Time:**

**Smoke & Fire…or is it?**


	13. Chapter 12: Smoke & Fire, or is it?

_A/N: See, I can write my chapters on time when I want to! I'm just a good procrastinator is all. Hahaha, anyway, read on!_

**Smoke & Fire…or is it?**

Another explosion rocked the room and the barrier surrounding the fight shook violently but held its ground. A flaming mass flew backwards and smashed into the barrier before sliding to the floor, a sword sliding to a stop next to it. Masuki rolled away from the wall and picked himself off the floor, putting out a fire on his shoulder with his hand. He looked around dazed and then shook his head wildly before slapping himself hard enough to redden his cheek.

"It seems you are not all you said you are, child." A voice growled, and the fire parted to show the muscle bound Yamamoto step forward and swing his sword idly, causing the flames to swirl around him. "But you have done well to survive so far."

"Heh, I'm not doing as well as I should be though…" Masuki said as he stepped forward and flicked his sword into the air with his foot. It spun a couple of times and then he caught it with one hand, lowering it to his side. "I didn't think I'd lose a hand while fighting you." He raised his left arm and showed off the black stump that had replaced his hand. The wound reached about halfway up his forearm and had been sealed shut by the heat of Yamamoto's sword. "Well, I say that…As Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13 for the last 1000 yrs or so I was hoping you'd be strong and you haven't disappointed me."

With a yell Masuki rushed forward and his blade clashed with Yamamoto's, the latter letting out a stream of fire in all directions. The fire swirled around the two as if sentient and as it closed in Masuki made his escape, pushing Yamamoto back and lifting himself into the air before pushing metal against metal and taking flight. He flipped in the air and had to spin to avoid another torrent of fire that was aimed at him. He used Shunpo and tried to attack Yamamoto from behind but the 2000 yr old Shinigami easily reacted and blocked the attack with a near lazy swing of his sword.

As Masuki ducked another ferocious attack, his pocket vibrated and a tune jingled out, barely audible over the sounds of the roaring fire. He looked down at his pocket, over to his stump and then at his sword hand; wondering how he was going to pick up without leaving himself defenceless. His thoughts were interrupted as a number of swirling vortexes of fire moved across the floor like spinning tops and surrounded him, moving to block him every time Masuki made any sort of movement.

"Suto-mu Kasei…" Yamamoto swung his sword and another tornado of fire appeared and moved into position around Masuki. "I think you are in need of a good thrashing, child. The flames of my Ryujin Jakka will reduce you to nought but ashes and then turn the ashes into nothingness."

Masuki face grew white as the flames drew closer around him, sweat appearing on his brow indicating the massive heat that surrounded him. "I think…" he started and the raised his sword to shoulder height. "…it is time I show you that you are not a god!"

As he said this the flames sped up and started to circle him, joining together and forming a massive pillar of fire with Masuki at the centre. The swirling flames whipped around him and his hair flapped wildly as the vortex attempted to suck him into the air. He stood his ground and strained as he increased his own reiatsu to prevent himself from being killed. Small gaps appeared the flame wall every now and again and Masuki stared in this direction, waiting for the right moment, the moment when he could strike and start things for real.

A flash of white and pink and Masuki flashed forward with shunpo, the flame wall closed in but at the last second exploded outwards before losing its shape and falling back with the rest of the flames. Yamamoto took a step back in surprise as Masuki appeared in front of him and planted a foot on his chest sending him sliding across the floor, before using shunpo again and appearing behind Yamamoto and his sword swinging through the air.

Red blood splattered against the floor and then instantly turned black with the heat of Ryujin Jakka. Yamamoto stumbled forward and dropped to one knee as blood seeped down his back. Masuki appeared in front of him again and flicked his sword, his opponent's blood flicking to the floor. Yamamoto grunted and then stood up again, a look on his face of nothing but rage.

"Hold that thought…" Masuki said and drove his sword into the ground in front of him before spinning and ending up in a sitting position with his legs crossed. "Bakudo, Douzoukinjitou" with the sound of a small bell, four points of light appeared around Masuki; Two in front and two behind. They stretched out and created a square of Kido energy before rising up and forming a dark turquoise pyramid around him and his sword. It shone brightly as Masuki reached into his pocket and pulled out his still ringing phone, placing it on the floor in front of him and pressing the answer button.

Outside of the barrier, Yamamoto threw his flames at it with huge amounts of force but it would not break, eventually the Captain-Commander settled down and decided that he would wait and not waste his energy. He started to charge up his reiatsu for another one of his explosive attacks.

On the inside of the barrier, Masuki was dead still as a loud voice rung out of his voice. "Oi you stupid pig headed idiot! You went straight to Yamamoto! Are you completely out of your mind! I told you to take out the other bloody captains before you messed with someone of his calibre. A mere whiff of his reiatsu is enough to give confidence to the lowest level Shinigami that's fighting."

"C'mon, just think about what will happen when I take him down." Masuki countered, barely moving his lips as he did so.

"_Can _you take him down!" the shrill voice replied.

"I'm pretty sure, I've lost a hand to him but I'll fix that as soon as I find it and once I release he'll collapse like everyone else I've faced."

"ONCE YOU'VE RELEASED!" The voice screamed and Masuki flinched, the barrier around him pulsating as the flames licked at it. "You're fighting him while you haven't released! You really are crazy…" as she finished the sentence, the voice at the other end of the phone sounded concerned.

"Aww, you worried about me now?"

"In your dreams, idiot! I'm outside, finish it and meet my by the entrance to the Kuchiki household."

"Roger that." As he spoke a large crack appeared in the pyramid and Masuki's eyes widened in surprise. He moved slowly and picked up the phone, hanging up and placing it in his pocket in slow motion. As he moved, the barrier weakened and slowly dimmed in brightness. Masuki raised his remaining hand and folding the index finger in to the palm.

"Bakudo #93, Tenshushi-rudo!" An octagonal barrier appeared in front of Masuki, just as his pyramid exploded and the raging storm of fire that had surrounded his shield raced forward, clashing with his new barrier and pushing him backwards. The barrier cracked and then broke, and Masuki had to use shunpo to avoid incineration.

He dodged incoming attacks and flipped through the air, landing on the hilt of his sword and pushing it more into the floor. He crouched low, and rotated in the air, grabbing his sword and pulling it free before appearing as far away from Yamamoto as he could without falling into the fire that surrounded the entire room. He glanced around and kinked his head sideways when he saw something on the floor near to where Yamamoto was standing.

"Woo, lucky me it seems." He muttered to himself.

Yamamoto waved his sword and another wall of flame raged towards Masuki, who cut through it with his sword and jumped forward; rolling on the floor to break his fall before sprinting full out towards the old man. Yamamoto sneered at Masuki's seemingly frontal assault and raised his sword into the air, the tip pointing at the skies. Flames pulled in from the sides and rotated around him before gathering above him and once more charging at Masuki.

Masuki spiralled his way through the flames, his clothes blackening as they singed, and arrived in front of Yamamoto, crouched. Yamamoto took a surprised step back but then a look of confusion crossed his face as he realised Masuki had disappeared. He glanced around and saw Masuki rolling on the ground and picking something up as he went. He frowned to himself and sent more flames chasing after him.

With some skilful footwork and dance like movements, Masuki managed to avoid all the attacks directed at him and came to a stop by what used to be the entrance to the room. He grinned at Yamamoto and then looked down to the object he was cradling; his severed hand.

"Sucks to be you at the moment, Old man." Masuki sneered and placed his sword on the ground, before taking hold of his severed limb and holding it to the stump where it had come from, his hand moving so that it covered the wound. "You have to have realised that I kick ass at Kido…healing included." A greenish hue covered his arm and a minute later, when Masuki took his hand away, all there was to indicate that the hand had been missing was a deep black welt where it had been severed.

Yamamoto's eyes narrowed as he watched his enemy heal himself and replace the hand he himself and removed in an earlier clash.

"I've only restored basic motor functions but it'll help in my fight against you. Well then, I'm pretty sure you're up to the standards of what people believe; and for that…you get to see something special." Masuki said as he picked up his sword and spun it around both of his hands. "You get to see the released form of my Zanpakuto." He stopped the sword from spinning and held it so the tip was inches from the floor. "Try not to die too quickly…"

"Arrogant child, you will discover why I have been the Captain-Commander of the Gotei 12 for the past 1000 yrs…it is because there has been no-one stronger then me in all of that time."

"Let's test that theory shall we…"

x+x+x+x+x

Yajuu jumped through the air and landed on the shoulders of a muscled hollow, he swung his blades through the air and pierced the hollows mask on either side of its head. As it dissolved into nothingness Yajuu flipped off and landed at the feet of a second, blocking its attack with one sword and slicing off its leg with his other one. The hollow roared in pain and as it fell forward, Yajuu spun and cut off its arms before planting a foot on its back, pushing it to the ground, and decapitating it with a swift swing.

The street beside him exploded as a Cero ripped through the stone and wood and Yajuu dived away from it to avoid death. He looked up to see the Menos Grande take a huge step forward and dived away again as it crashed into the ground where he had just been standing. Yajuu cursed to himself and used Shunpo to move himself further away from the giant.

"Where the hell are the rest of the Shinigami!" he muttered to himself, glancing around at the lack of black clad friends. "I'm seriously going to complain to someone when all this is over."

"Complain all you want, Shinigami, but you'll have to do it pretty soon."

Yajuu spun around and narrowly avoided loosing his head as he ducked a blade passing over him. He rolled forward and fired a kick in the direction of his assailant, only for his foot to hit thin air. He glanced round and jumped back to avoid another attack, the tip of the blade slicing through the edge of his Hakama top. With a back flip he increased the distance away from the new arrival and landed on one knee.

His eyes widened in surprise when he saw three white clad people standing in front of him. The one in the centre stood the tallest, with his brown hair tied in a long braid and his eyes a dull blue. The braid hung over his shoulder and he wore the scabbard of his sword, the sword being in his hand, on his left hip. His Zanpakuto had a dark green handle and the guard was a hollow oval. There was a woman stood to his left, who wore here bluish hair in a centre parting and kept it cut to about chin length. Her Zanpakuto was still sheathed and had a dark blue handle and its guard as shaped like a five pointed star; the points all being short and wavy. On the other side of the man was a shorter man, who had scruffy dirty blonder hair kept out his eyes by a golden headband. His Zanpakuto was hanging over his right shoulder, upside down, and had a red handle and the guard was some sort of plated circle.

"Three of you? Seems like after I took down your leader, you think you can't handle me alone…" Yajuu said.

"Yama is dead! The girl cried out, anger seeping onto her face.

"Yeah and I killed him, you got a problem with that."

The girl started to move forward but the centre guy raised his sword in front of her, preventing her from moving forward any more. "Three of us?" He questioned, ignoring the conversation that had passed a second ago.

Yajuu's eyes widened, and he suddenly dropped low, a string of coloured beads flying across the street. He rolled forward and spun to face two more people. One of them was a girl who had purple shaded hair which she hung in spiky bangs and clipped off of her face with a skull shaped clip, her sword hanging limply in her left hand; the handle coloured a dark pink and the guard shaped like a yo-yo. To her right was another man, whose stark white hair hung in mismatched lengths around his face and his Zanpakuto was on his right hip with a white handle and a guard shaped like a sharks head.

"Well…" Yajuu started as he looked around at the 5 people now surrounding him. "This could be a problem…"

"Grow, Hozukimaru!" A voice cried out and a figure appeared behind the second female to appear and a spear shot forward, taking a chunk out of her shoulder, spurting blood across the ground as she cried out and fell forward.

"Bloom, Fuji Kujaku." A second voice called out and the blonde haired man fell forward as blood plumed from his back.

"Looky what we have here!" Ikkaku called out as he rested his Zanpakuto along his shoulder, with his arms draped over them. "Seems like you guys want to gang up on my friend here, and that's no fun at all! He's got to leave some for us, isn't that right, Yumichika?"

Yumichika appeared across from the first Teikou to appear and held his multi-bladed Zanpakuto by his side. "Defiantly, if we left him be he'd leave nothing left for us to fight."

"Ikkaku, Yumichika…" Yajuu said with a grin as he stood up straight. "I was about to start the party without you!" and he turned to the braided hair man and pointed one of his blades at him. "He's mine though."

"Fair enough, I'll take girly here..." he jumped down to the purple headed girl and crouched down by her as she pulled herself to a kneeling position. "Let's take this somewhere else shall we, I wouldn't want anything to interfere."

The girl sneered. "I don't care where I kill you!" and then both she and Ikkaku disappeared with Shunpo.

"Then I will take blondie here, let's go." Yumichika said and both he and the blonde headed man disappeared with Shunpo.

"Guess that leaves me to beat up you guys." Yajuu said and held both his swords up.

"You can't possibly think that you can fight all three of us at once?" the centre guy asked just as a hand appeared in front of in front of the other girl and dragged her backwards, throwing her to the ground. A figure appeared in her place and drew its sword which was hanging between his legs.

"Kurotsuchi!" Yajuu called as he stared at the strange painted face of the 12th division's third seat.

"If you don't mind, this specimen interests me greatly." He said matter-of-factly before disappearing with shunpo.

"Guess that just leaves 2 on 1 then…" he said while looking around. "Unless anyone else wants to join in!" he called out.

In answer to his shout two more Shinigami appeared, one large fellow with large brown beads around his neck and a second smaller one with a large afro balancing on his head.

"Only one left guys, the white hair over there is all yours."

Jirobo and Zennosuke both nodded before disappearing with shunpo, followed shortly by the white haired Teikou following them.

"..and then there was one, I'm Yajuu Kikuishi; who're you?" Yajuu asked with a coy voice.

The man narrowed his eyes but replied all the same. "I am Ishuui Burrakku, Member of the Teikou."

"You ready to rumble!"

x+x+x+x+x

Both Ikkaku and his opponent appeared at the same time on opposite sides of a street, balancing on the walls. Ikkaku was crouched low with his released Zanpakuto resting across his shoulders and his arms wrapped around it, while the female Teikou member was stood up straight and was slowly drawing her own sword, holding it low by her side.

"I'm Ikkaku Madarame, member of the Zaraki Corps and 3rd seat of the 11th division under Captain Kenpachi!" Ikkaku said with a gleeful smile creeping onto his lips.

"One of the first things we are taught in Kendo lessons…" The girl said slowly. "To announce your name, rank and squad before battle; regardless of whom you were fighting. It is a hard habit to forget once it is beaten into you by the instructors so I suppose I'll keep to Shinigami etiquette." She raised her sword and held it parallel to the ground in front of here. "I am Ashi Shirokuro, member of the Teikou and warrior under the Mekakushi."

"The Meka-what hey?" Ikkaku said as his smile changed into a look of confusion, his eyebrows drooping down.

"How naïve… The Mekakushi are the ones who lead us, the ones who will defeat your Captains and the ones to reduce Soul Society to nought but ash."

Ikkaku's face lit up one more. "Whatever, lets get this started" and with a cry he jumped into the air towards Ashi.

Ashi wasted no time and jumped into the air as well, her sword clashing against the wooden shaft of Hozukimaru. The two fighters twisted in mid air and swapped sides, only for Ashi to disappear with Shunpo and appear behind Ikkaku once more, her sword tip inches from the back of his neck.

Her attack was halted as Ikkaku grinned and stabbed the base of his spear backwards, causing Ashi to jump back to avoid it. They landed on the top of the walls again and twisted to face each other.

"You're good, but I wonder how long you will last." Ikkaku grinned.

"Longer then you I dare say…" Ashi said just as a girlish giggle escaped her lips and Ikkaku looked on confused. "I guess since you have already released…" another giggle escaped. "Then I will have to…as…well…" she managed, nearly bursting into laughter.

"Have I missed a joke somewhere?" Ikkaku asked.

"Sorry about that… Jump and Jiggle, Kyukosen!"

"Jump…and…jiggle…" Ikkaku said with a ludicrous expression. "You have to be kidding me."

As he spoke, Ashi placed her Zanpakuto across the back of her hand and balanced it there. The bladed melted away, as did the handle, and the liquid ran around her hands forming into braces that held onto her arm at the wrist and elbow. She punched her fist together and two flat blades shot outwards, towards her elbows, stopping an inch after her arm ended. Then, as she separated her fists, they rotated and formed a perfectly flat disc that settled perfectly still on the brace.

"Interesting Shikai you have there, let's test it!" Ikkaku said and once more jumped, except this time he went straight forward, foregoing any upwards motion.

Ashi smiled and raised her left disc, the blade on the end of Ikkaku's spear clashing against it and bouncing off. She rotated, causing the blade to fly away from her, and then took a swipe with her other disc. Ikkaku stuck his blade into the stone and used it to lever himself out of the way and flipping into the air, letting out a volley of straight attacks with the base of his weapon.

Ashi blocked the majority of attacks and then as Ikkaku sent another stab attack at her she countered by throwing a punch at the weapon itself. The edge of the disc struck the blunt base and the red tassel on the end shredding into pieces. The disc hit the wood and the two weapons stopped moving for a second before the wood started to split making Ikkaku pull away and drop to the ground.

"Interesting, it seems your weapon vibrates…" Ikkaku said musingly to himself.

"You've worked it out, how impressive of you." Ashi said, dropping to the ground I front of Ikkaku. "My blades vibrate at super high speeds that allow it to cut through nearly anything it touches."

Ikkaku replied with a smile and struck out with a vertical sweep attack. Ashi blocked the attack with both discs, catching the spear near Ikkaku's hands. However at the last second Ikkaku smiled and cried out "Split!" His Zanpakuto suddenly spilt into three parts and the top part swung down, and dug deep into Ashi's chest, right between her breasts. She cried out and dropped to her knee's blood welling up out of the wound and falling to the floor in front of here. Ikkaku's faced turned serious as he flicked the remaining two parts back together and shoved Hozukimaru completely through her chest so it stuck into the floor.

Ikkaku then leant forward so that his mouth was next to her ear. "You were a fun fight, but I just have one question before you die…" He paused while he wetted his lips. "A bloke standing about head and shoulders above me, is he one of your precious Mekakushi?"

Ashi smiled as blood escaped from between her lips. "Ta…iki Kuro…da. He is the one you…seek." She managed to say before slumping forward on Ikkaku's weapon, her own Zanpakuto reverting to normal and clattering to the ground.

"Taiki Kuroda heh?"

x+x+x+x+x

Yumichika appeared first and dropped to the ground with a light thud, shortly followed by the blonde Teikou member. While they had travelled both had drawn their swords and now held them up in a guard. Yumichika stared at his foe and absentmindedly brushed his lush hair from his face. The Teikou man grinned and flew forward, clashing his blade with Yumichika across their bodies.

"How ugly of you, starting the fight before introducing yourself." Yumichika said and spit on the floor at the mans feet.

"Like I care about the fancies of a dead man!" he said and the two exchange a couple more blows before locking again.

"I am Yumichika Ayesagawa, 5th seat of the 11th division." Yumichika said before kicking out the mans feet and jumping away from him.

"Heh, fine, if it will get the fight started properly I'll introduce myself." He said and drew himself to his full height, much taller than Yumichika. "I am Raku Shirokuro, member of the Teikou…and killer of the 11th divisions 5th seat; Yumichika Ayesagawa!" he laughed as he said the last bit.

"Another ugly comment, at least wait until we battle properly to claim these things." Yumichika said with a shake of his head before raising his sword so it was in line with his chin. "Bloom, Fuji Kujaku!" he called and the slightly curved blade of his Katana bent backwards so the blade was on the inside of the curve and it then split into 4 separate blades connected at the guard with a pin.

"How…unimpressive for a release. I hope it does something more exciting then simply give you four blades to strike with." Raku said and then jumped forward, clashing his blade against Yumichika's the latte easily pushing the attack away.

Raku growled and then the two of them started a series of blows against each other, the sound of clashing steel loud and sparks flying off in all directions. Eventually Raku let of a shout and jumped away, landing on one knee in front of Yumichika.

"Looks like you can't handle 'just four blades to strike with.'" Yumichika mocked as he watch Raku seethe with anger.

"I won't be made a fool of by a Shinigami, I won't. I'll defeat you, defeat everyone I come across and then Masuki will allow me to transcend!"

"Masuki?" Yumichika questioned.

"Masuki Joushi…" Raku sneered "He is the leader of us all, the power that will crush Soul Society, the power that will defeat Yamamoto and the power that will grant me power!" he paused as if to savour the face Yumichika was making. "He and the rest of the Mekakushi, the 8 beings that have transcended their Shinigami bodies, will crush your pathetic Gotei 13 and then he will grant us, the Teikou, the ability that he himself possesses."

"Sounds like quite the guy…" Yumichika said and watched as Raku became distracted.

"Yes, he is the grea…" his admiration was interrupted as Yumichika appeared behind him and struck him across the back, causing blood to spurt into the air. Raku cried out in pain and fell to the floor, stopping his face hitting with one hand.

"The things you were saying were far too ugly to carry on listening to."

"How dare you…" Raku's whole body was shaking with anger. "For that you die, Lash, Shesekei!" he flicked his blade upwards and the blade shone white and elongated, catching a surprised Yumichika off guard and slicing down his right side, cutting a deep gash into his body. Yumichika jumped away and placed a hand on the wound, although it was useless.

Raku stood up and turned to face his opponent, a long white whip held in his hand with red energy coursing through it. He grinned and cracked his whip, the red energy jumping out at the buildings surrounding them. "You going to die now sucker!" he called and lashed out.

Yumichika reacted fast and raised his own Zanpakuto and the whip wrapped itself around the blades.

"Oops, your mistake!" Raku called in his own mocking voice.

Yumichika called out in surprise as a current of some sort ran through his blade and shot through his body. His body arced at the back and became stiff, before started to convulse. His automatic reaction was to release his sword, which he did and Raku pulled it away from him with his whip. As he released the weapon, Yumichika's body stopped moving and smoke started to rise from his back.

"That's the ability of my Zanpakuto, it shocks whoever touches the whip and burns them from the inside out!" he laughed and then let of a barrage of attacks, all of them hitting Yumichika and splashing blood onto the ground. Yumichika fell to his knees and let the attacks come, his blood lose causing partial unconsciousness at some points. Eventually, Raku seemed to get bored and stopped attacking, dropping down to his haunches in front of the knelt Yumichika, whose head was also bowed.

"Come on now, this isn't very fun at all." He said, prodding Yumichika with a finger but getting no reaction. "Maybe I should give you your sword back, I've heard from a little bunny about your true Shikai state, not the pathetic one you have shown me." At this Yumichika raised his head and looked straight at Raku. "That has your interest doesn't it?" Raku said and stood up, turning around as he did so.

Yumichika smiled to himself at his foe's stupidity and raised his right hand "Hado #33. Shakkaho!" a blue flamed attack sprung forth and crashed into Raku's back, engulfing him in flames and throwing him forward. Yumichika used Shunpo and appeared by his sword, picking it up and dusting it off as he did so.

"I don't know how you heard about my Shikai but don't get your hopes up; you won't get to see it."

Raku stumbled out of the smoke, and tripped over his own whip, falling to the ground. Yumichika snorted in derision and stepped forward, slashing across Raku's back once again. He cried out in pain and dropped to the floor, his whip shrinking back to its sword state. Yumichika then relaxed his shoulder and turned away. "You should of never…urrgh." He moaned and looked down to see a blade protruding from his belly.

"Turn your back to the enemy in battle, right?" Raku finished before slumping to the ground.

Yumichika pulled the blade free with a grunt and stumbled forward until he was leant against a wall. He coughed and blood splattered on the wall and floor while his free hand tried to stem the flow of blood from his wound. It was fruitless to try, as it was not only his stomach wound that was bleeding, all the wounds covering his body had started to leak and Yumichika fell to his knees with his shoulder leant against the wall.

"Sorry, Ikkaku, it looks like I won't be able to join you in your after fight celebrations…" He muttered to himself. "At least I was able to die while serving you, Captain Kenpachi…" with that he fell forward and lay motionless on the floor, blood seeping from his wounds and creating a puddle of red on the floor beneath him.

_A/N: Oh noes! I ran out of word space for this chapter, I seem to have gotten to into these fights but oh well; I know you love fights so I'll forgive myself. Muhahaha…anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and hopefully you are looking forward to the coming chapters._

_Also, I have noticed that Masuki's plans of the destruction of Soul Society haven't really been explained yet so expect explanations to pop up in fights and other places. So now you got to the end of the chapter, leave a review; I'm up for any criticisms, advice, tips or anything else you wish to say to me. Praise is nice as well!_

**Next Time:**

**Chapter 13 – The Garden and its Weather.**

_Tara for now!_


	14. An unfortunate message :

_Hi to all my lovely reviewers and anyone else who may be reading this story as it progresses. Unfortunately I have some bad news to deliver to you guys, this story is going to be on Temporary Hiatus until I feel I have reached a point with it's storyline, plot and character development that allows me to carry on with this… _

_I'd like to take this opportunity to thank each and every reviewer by name…_

_**Oggytheogre321**_

_**Shadowjohn 101**_

_**Randomguy24**_

_**Anindoufu**_

_**Newtilator**_

_**Snowkid**_

_**N Rawk **__(Who, although didn't review, put my story onto his list of favourite stories.)_

_Thanks a lot you guys (and girls? Lol) having people review my story makes it all that more interesting to write and allows me to progress with my own writing skill._

_I will also, during this time of non-publishing, be revising and rewriting previous chapters in order to get everything into an order that makes more sense to myself. Don't worry though; all the major plot points thus far will be unchanged, so none of you will have to worry about missing out on your favourite fights or favourite (or hated lol) deaths._

_Now I have said this I have something else to say…I'm planning on releasing chapters of 3 stories on a monthly basis. This will include "The Masked One" of which you are all familiar I hope! A story called "Those With Power" based upon the teen years of Superman had he attended Sky High! (If you don't know what it is, google it!) and a one piece story called "One Piece: Full Throttle." All of these stories are Character Submissions so if you are interested, check out the introductory post that I have up (well, I'll submit them with his update so we'll see if it is up all at the same time.)_

_Thanks again for all your reviews and hold your breath in batedness (not a word but oh well) for the return of "The Masked Ones"!_


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